Learning from Experience: Co-op Business Development Centers - Monograph No. 5
Price: Php400.00/US$8.50 [Order Here]

Developing micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) owned and managed by co-op members in Asia is among AWCF’s high priority areas. AWCF recognizes MSMEs’ role in alleviating poverty, creating employment opportunities in the community, and building the foundations of the private sector. Through its “Women Entrepreneurship Development” Program, AWCF advocates for co-ops to set up co-op business development centers (CBDCs) for members who have MSMEs. The CBDC as a support mechanism assists co-op members in scaling up their enterprises through business development services like entrepreneurship and skills training, information and communications technology support, advisory services on market and technology, etc. The CBDC is also a means to promote women empowerment through economic activities, which helps enable women to actively participate as co-op members and leaders. All told, the CBDC is another step, maybe even to say a higher step, for co-ops to help members of meager resources who have banded together through co-ops.

AWCF hopes that this publication will help co-ops and other interested groups gain understanding of business development centers as they are applied, set-up, and operated within the co-op, including constraints faced, support needed for growth and development, and how the benefits that are gained by co-op members from their CBDC will eventually flow back to the co-ops themselves and the communities. The publication compiles the experiences of umbrella-organizations Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT), Thailand; Forum for Indonesian Co-operatives Movement (FORMASI Indonesia), Indonesia; and National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO), Philippines—AWCF member-organizations—and their co-ops in setting up and strengthening their business development services with different approaches and types of services.

This publication was prepared with inspiration from the results of the “Information Technology for Southeast Asian Co-operatives (it@coops) Project” held by AWCF in 2004-2007, in partnership with InWEnt Germany. CULT, FORMASI Indonesia, and NATCCO can now share many experiences from participating in it@coops—of which they have continued the efforts even after the project’s end—as their networks strengthened their services to members, particularly through CBDCs and the information technology (IT) applications used in the CBDCs.

Trainer’s Manual on Training for Women Leaders Transforming Co-operatives
Price: Php750.00/US$17.00 [Order Here]

Gaining Ground—Case Stories of Gender and Development in the Co-op
Price: Php350.00/US$8.75 [Order Here]

This book features the stories of the five member-organizations of the AWCF. Collectively, the stories depict and describe the journey that the AWCF network undertook as it put into action the components of two MISEREOR-funded projects: “Strengthening Gender Programs of Co-operative Organizations in Asia” (September 1996-August 1999, ext. to February 2000); and “Enabling Women to Promote and Practice Transformative Leadership in Co-ops in Five Countries in Asia” (February 2002-March 2005). The stories hope to convey AWCF’s learning on various areas of expertise and practices of mainstreaming gender and transformative leadership (TL) in programs and services, and building women’s empowerment in the organizations within the AWCF network, including increasing the role and participation of women at all levels and all sectors of co-ops; entrepreneurship development; training of co-op leaders on gender and TL; and policy advocacy, among other engendering actions. Challenges that the network faced, and may still continue to do so, in implementing the projects are also included for added understanding on the experiences of the AWCF network regarding the two projects, and the outputs of these experiences.

This book presents the proceedings of this Regional Conference held November 6-8, 2006 in Tagaytay, Philippines, ten years after the Regional Conference on “Women in Decision-Making in Co-operatives” in May 1997, also in Tagaytay, Philippines. AWCF and the International Co-operative Alliance-Asia and Pacific Regional Women’s Committee (ICA AP RWC) convened the 2006 Regional Conference to review and assess the gains in empowering women in co-ops within the AP region. Some 130 co-operators from 13 countries discussed the current state of their respective co-operatives and organizations in promoting women empowerment and development.

Taking the assessment results into consideration, the participants in the 2006 made some refinements to the previously identified empowering strategies and added new concepts for empowering women, through a new “Declaration and Platform of Action.” Thus areas for women empowerment and development that must be worked on in the forthcoming years include education and training; capability-building; access to new technologies; economic, social and political empowerment; and development of policies promoting gender mainstreaming and women empowerment.

As part of its continuing advocacy to promote transformative leadership (TL) in co-ops, AWCF has developed this manual containing the framework, processes, and instruments for assessing the co-op's adoption of TL. This manual will help co-ops and co-operators gauge how transformative they are, and what actions, if needed, can still be done so as to be development-oriented, issue-focused, and gender-sensitive (DO-IF-GS), as the tenets of TL go. The instruments to be used during the assessment proper are provided in a CD-ROM that comes with the manual.

MSMEs in Co-ops: A Way to Quality Life in Asia - Monograph 3
Price: Php300.00/US$7.50 [Order Here]

 

A Training Manual on Gender and Co-operatives in Thailand
Price: Php600.00/US$15.00 [Order Here]

This book is about this Regional Conference held March 6-8, 2000 at Bangkok, Thailand. The event was an opportunity to examine closely the gender impact of economic globalization and its implications on the co-op movement as well as on the family and on the community. The book presents papers that dwell on: what, why and how of globalization and gender impact; mechanisms to achieve gender equity in the era of globalization, their implications to co-ops, and best practices; and, visioning of co-operatives in the new millennium.

Price: Php600.00/US$12.75 [Order Here]

This monograph presents and describes the mutually benefiting and synergistic dynamics between women, co-operatives, and the community. Specific examples show how women's involvement in co-ops benefits the co-ops themselves and the communities at large, and how women, in return, benefit from their co-op involvement. The reader will also find other relevant information on areas like women as co-op members, leaders, and decision-makers; co-ops' responses to women's specific needs; and co-ops' partnerships with other groups to meet women's needs.

 

This presents the proceedings of this Regional Conference held May 7-9, 1997 in Tagaytay City, Philippines. It contains 18 papers on the following topics: a) status of women's participation in leadership and decision-making in society and in co-ops in the global, regional, and local contexts; b) a comparative analysis of women's and men's styles of leading; c) women's and men's perspectives on women's marginalization in leadership and decision-making; and d) practical steps and strategies to increase women's participation in leadership and decision-making in co-operatives.

 

This book contains the proceedings of this Regional Conference held April 25-28, 1995, Bangkok, Thailand. Four showcases of gender-responsive co-operatives from Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and Sri Lanka were presented in the Conference.