The ICA-AP Committee on Youth Cooperation (ICYC), with support from 1CISP Life and General Insurance (1CISP), MASS-SPECC, Youth Connect Cooperative, and ICA Member Coops, organized a Regional Youth Workshop for youth in Asia Pacific. The workshop took place from 3-5 November 2023 at the First Pacific Leadership Academy in Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines.
25 youth from four countries participated, representing ICA members the Iran Chamber of Cooperatives (ICC), 1CISP, MASS-SPECC, Federation of People’s Sustainable Development Cooperative (FPSDC), National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), and Union of Legitimate Service Consulting Cooperative (ULSCC). The event brought young people together for the exchange of ideas, networking, sharing of best practices, and building enterprise sustainability. The workshop aimed to explore ideas for the sustainability of youth-centric cooperatives and highlight the importance of education, training, and information for members, as well as inclusivity of the youth in cooperative management.
The workshop started with a welcome message by Mr. Alireza Banaeifar, then Chairperson of ICYC, emphasizing the purpose of the workshop. He provided the background and history of the workshop, which originated in 2018 during the Regional Assembly in Iran. During this event, ICYC conducted a workshop on creating business canvas for a cooperative business model, where young participants, mostly women, learned to design and develop cooperative business ideas. Afterwards, to sustain the program even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICA Global Youth Committee initiated the Replication Project, offering financial support for youth cooperatives. The two winning teams from the Asia-Pacific region (Philippines and Indonesia) successfully established cooperative businesses, achieving a 50% success rate.
ICYC aims to elevate this success rate to 100% by exploring the issues that young co-operators face after setting-up their cooperatives. Through this workshop, ICYC aimed to bring out concrete and feasible solutions not only to protect the coops, but to also improve the benefits for members of the coops.
ICA-AP Regional Director, Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, welcomed all the guests and delegates and appreciated the sponsor cooperatives. Mr. Iyer emphasized that the significance of the movement does not lie in the quantity of participants, but on the quality and commitment of the young cooperators who are committed, willing, and empowered to contribute to the development of cooperative. He added that dedication and initiatives within the youth are the essential factors for success, and that youth should be leading the sector by promoting and advancing modern technology and digitalization within coops.
Dr. Yashavantha Dongre, Chairperson of the ICA-AP Research Committee and Co-Secretary of the ICA-AP ICEI, delivered the keynote address. He discussed “Building Sustainability through the Fifth cooperative principle on Education, Information and Training”, and highlighted that it was only through involvement one can fully understand and practice cooperation among members and their coops.
The workshop focused on three main sessions: (1) Status of Youth Cooperatives in the Asia Pacific Region, (2) Cooperative Education, Governance, and Literacy, and (3) Cooperative Case Studies (including Introduction to CoopSpring Toolkit). Through these sessions, the delegates crafted a Strategic Action Plan for the Youth, which will serve as the starting point of the ICYC in crafting a final action plan for implementation from 2024 to 2026.
Session 1 was facilitated by experts from Malaysia and Philippines. Mr. Leo Panares from LAMAC Multi-purpose Cooperative from the Philippines discussed about their Youth Planet Laboratory Cooperative. The lead youth initiative was born as a business idea during the Coop Pitch, a side event aligned with the Asia-Pacific Youth Summit in 2016. It is now a diversified cooperative which supports youth in Agri-Enterprise Marketing Strategies, Livelihood and Entrepreneurship Trainings, and Leadership Development Trainings.
Mr. Mohd. Afnan Bin Hasim, ICYC Member, from Cooperative Institute of Management in Malaysia gave his insights on the importance of involving youth in cooperatives from an early age. Mr. Rico Renze Regala, representing Young Entrepreneurs Services Cooperative (YES COOP) from the Philippines, discussed their coop and how to establish and sustain a youth coop. YES COOP is a youth coop whose members and management are all youth aged 18-35, mostly young workers and entrepreneurs having passion and commitment towards cooperatives. Mr. Regala discussed the journey and challenges faced by YES COOP, and how to achieve sustainability and growth.
After identifying the status of youth cooperatives from the region, participants discussed Cooperative Education, Governance, and Literacy for Session 2.
Mr. Jaap van Waalwijk van Doorn, Manager of International Relations and Funding at Cresol, Credit Cooperative System discussed essential leadership skills of youth in coops and explained various forms of member benefits that will protect members and their family. Insights about the fundamental principles of Financial Literacy was discussed by Atty. Marx Nicholai Delmo, ICYC Member from Philippines. He explained the importance of understanding budget and savings and that such concepts are fundamental for members to navigate financial resources effectively. Mr Harold Kim Maggay from 1CISP discussed the Young Leaders Program and encouraged the delegates to participate and engage in the program. Their advocacy for youth inclusivity was also well-appreciated by the delegates.
The workshop provided ample networking opportunities for the participants. Through group activities, ice-breakers, and informal interactions, participants had the chance to connect with like-minded individuals from different countries and exchange ideas.
Session 3 focused about Cooperative Case Studies. It started off by an inspirational lecture from Ms. Heira Hardiyanti, Co-Founder of MYCOOLCLASS in Indonesia, and was followed by a group activity on identifying problems, issues, and challenges faced by Youth Cooperatives in the Asia-Pacific Region by Mr. Anurag Dang, Secretary, NCUI Youth Committee and a certified Coop Spring trainer. Mr. Dang provided five different case studies of youth-led cooperatives which were based from the ICA Global Youth Committee’s CoopSpring Toolkit authored by Ms. Emily AM Lippold Cheney, member of ICA Global Youth Committee.
Ms. Emily, through her video message, provided a briefer on the Toolkit and explained its two main sections: the CoopYouth Philosophy and the Practice of Cooperation, addressing challenges in cooperative practice. She expressed her hope that it will contribute to strengthening and establishing new cooperatives worldwide, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
As a result of the sessions, the delegates were able to craft a Strategic Action Plan for Youth, using the learnings, problems, and discussions from the workshop. There were proposed solutions and programs to the identified problems of youth coops in Asia Pacific.
Ms. Gelizabeth Cabuhat, ICYC Member from Philippines, delivered the workshop report, followed by the presentation of Strategic Plan by Atty. Dulce Bustamante, then Vice-Chairperson of ICYC and a vote of thanks by Mr. Shree Padmanabhan, Secretary of ICYC. Mr. Padmanabhan expressed gratitude to the sponsors for hosting the workshop in physical format and to the participants for their active engagement throughout workshop.
