ICA Asia and Pacific wishes all women cooperators in the region a Very Happy Women’s Day!

This year the UN Women has announced, ‘Women in leadership:  Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world’ as the theme of International Women's Day (IWD21) to be celebrated on March 8.   It “celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Women have been at the forefront to fight the hardships brought by the COVID-19 pandemic; be it  in their businesses, homes, or communities.

Women across all levels of cooperatives, have shouldered equal responsibility in fighting the pandemic. Women as members, workers, employees, and leaders of cooperatives have been  involved in ensuring the survival of cooperative businesses and contributed equally to the response actions undertaken by their cooperatives  (charity, donations, relief work, etc). At the same time, women have had to face disproportionate burdens triggered by the pandemic - domestic violence and unequal burden of household care and responsibility.

The theme of this year’s IWD reiterates the crucial role of women in the post-pandemic world.   Moving forward, it is important that women continue to engage in decision-making and bring to table their needs, experiences, perspectives, and expertise. It is also important that gender-mixed cooperatives (that is, cooperatives that have both women and men as members, staff, etc.) create attractive opportunities and develop a friendly, safe, and encouraging environment for women.

How are you celebrating IWD21?

The ICA Asia and Pacific Office invites all members (especially women!) to submit articles and photos/videos* on the theme ‘Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world’.

You may send article(s)* and photo(s)/video(s)* on the following topics:

• Thoughts/ suggestions to create an equal future for women in the cooperative movement.
• Case studies/ stories about today’s women leaders in the cooperative movement.
• Inspiring decisions/ actions taken by women cooperators for the benefit of business/ community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Impactful initiatives/ activities undertaken by your cooperative to support women during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Your activities to observe the IWD.
• Initiatives/ activities that your cooperative plans to undertake with women in 2021 that may encourage other cooperatives in your country and in the region to follow.
• *Maximum word limit for an article is 500 words. *Photos/ videos must have captions (max 100 words).

Send your article and photos/ videos to shivali.sarna@icaap.coop latest by March 20, 2021.

Role of women in leadership for a just recovery!

The ICA is celebrating IWD21 by having a month-long campaign #coops4women on social media led by the ICA Gender Equality Committee (GEC). The campaign will showcase the important role of   women in leadership of cooperatives for a just recovery.

ICA GEC will release a short publication showcasing the regional best-case practices around the theme of “Women in leadership and COVID-19.” It will feature two-three case studies each from all the regions of ICA. 

On 8th March, GEC will share a Declaration for the International Day of Women. On 18th March at 15:00 CET, GEC will organise a webinar on “Women in leadership and just recovery” with the support of the #coops4dev team. It will be divided into two parts. The first part will focus on “Regional updates from the GEC regional representatives” where Dr. Nandini Azad, Chairperson, ICA-AP Women’s Committee will represent the Asia and Pacific region. The second part will be on “Policy & Sustainable Development perspectives”.

To register for the webinar, click here.

To participate in the campaign on social media, use #coops4women.