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AWCF Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum

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Home Programs Women Entrepreneurship Development Regional Exchange Program “Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women as Important Dimension to Building Gender Equality in Southeast Asia"
Regional Exchange Program “Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women as Important Dimension to Building Gender Equality in Southeast Asia" PDF Print E-mail
Philippines, September 2003; Thailand, February 2004

On September 16 to 27, 2003 in the Philippines, and on January 27 to February 7, 2004 in Thailand, AWCF organized a regional exchange program as an activity of the project "Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women as Important Dimension to Building Gender Equality in Southeast Asia." AWCF's partners for the project are the ASEAN Foundation and the Japan ASEAN Solidarity Fund. The project envisions the sharing of experiences and the exposure of the exchange program's women participants to co-op financial services and MSMEs in the Philippines and Thailand. Field trips and forums during these visits facilitated learning and inputs among the participants and the invited resource speakers on co-ops/MSMEs. The participants also presented at the forums a number of caselets of their experiences on co-ops/MSMEs in their home countries.

The total of 40 (20 in each batch) women participants came from various positions in co-operatives and governments in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines in September, the exchange program participants visited affiliate-co-ops of NATCCO in the Philippines as well as government and non-government organizations with programs on empowerment of women and entrepreneurship development. These visits took them to various provinces in the Luzon and Visayas regions of the Philippines.

On the other hand, the participants in the Thailand batch had their hands full in visiting credit unions (CUs), and business establishments and shops of MSMEs in Bangkok, Nakhonprathom, Petchburi, Lampang and Chiang Mai. The CUs are members of CULT in Thailand.

In the culminating day of the regional exchange in both Philippines and Thailand, the participants prepared and presented their Co-operative Entrepreneurship Development Action Plan (CEDAP). The participants were expected to present their CEDAP to the principals of their supporting home-organizations as well as to lead in the implementation of the plans, with the support of their organizations. The implementation of the CEDAP will be monitored by AWCF, which will also conduct an impact assessment activity after a certain period.