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Celebrating 60 years of ICA-AP
In 2020, we celebrate an incredible journey of 60 years of ICA in the Asia-Pacific region. Our growth has been hand-in-hand with our members in the region. However, at this time, we need to direct our attention to a much larger threat to humanity. The world is going through a pandemic which has affected almost all countries; disrupted work and livelihoods; uprooted lives, irrespective of rich or poor (though the impact on the poor is more severe); and created social and economic upheavals whose effects will be felt for a long time to come.
Cooperatives have risen in times of crises to respond to emerging needs and shown their resilience to survive by focusing on members and staying true to values and principles. In this issue, we will focus on work being carried out by cooperatives to address the impact of coronavirus in their communities.
These are unprecedented times, ICA-AP stands in solidarity with its members and the cooperative movement. We remain available to discuss concerns arising due to COVID-19 and encourage all our members to share their experiences and actions during these times. We hope our members, their communities and loved ones remain safe and well. Together we stand, and together we shall overcome!
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COVID-19 Response
Message from Ariel Guarco, ICA President
Dear Members, Dear Friends,
In these difficult times, I would like to express my solidarity with all ICA members, and in particular with all those who are going through a painful and containment period.
The emergency we find ourselves in and the measures enacted by the national authorities to prevent the spread of Covid-19 pose a great challenge to our communities and to the cooperatives that play an important role in them.
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“We are all individually vulnerable – It’s more than ever urgent to cooperate”
Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP responded to questions posed by Eugenie Park, reporter from Erounnet (http://www.eroun.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=11054), an Internet news company covering stories in the social sector.
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Platform to share COVID-19 experiences, resources and needs
ICA has launched a forum for its members to participate in coordinating the global cooperative response to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. The platform, created on www.loomio.coop, a worker cooperative based in New Zealand, provides the space and means to share and build the cooperative narrative in terms of the movement’s impact across socioeconomic scales, and create a consolidated response to the crisis.
ICA-AP Members: Response Work
Women Cooperators in Iran on the forefront of campaign against COVID-19
Farmers organisation, IFFCO, responds to containment efforts
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ICA-APs work in gender empowerment
Women in cooperatives have been at the forefront, be it at home, work, or in the community. This month we commemorate the role of women in cooperatives. We highlight the work done by ICA-AP over the years to enhance gender equality, the recent initiative by the Regional Women Committee, and the significance of International Women’s Day. The examples on work done by cooperatives to tackle the current COVID-19 pandemic further shows that women in cooperatives have taken the lead.
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Fighting for Women Workers’ Rights to Celebrating the Idea of Women: Observance of The International Women's Day
The earliest records of observing women’s day goes back to early twentieth century. Stemming from the simmering demands for the rights of women workers in factories and workshops in the United States, the purview of women’s rights as workers gradually expanded to women’s rights as citizens and ultimately as human beings.
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ICA-AP Updates
ICA-MAFF Training
The training course on Fostering Leaders for Management and Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia-2019 is running in its third decade under the ICA-MAFF partnership. The training was conducted in Thailand and Japan from February-March, 2020, with the objective to foster agricultural cooperatives and farmers’ organisations to boost agricultural production, increase farmers’ income and eradicate famine and poverty
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Role of cooperatives in sustainable development in Asia-Pacific countries
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) organised an international workshop on the Role of Cooperatives in Sustainable Development in Asia-Pacific Countries, March 3-5, 2020, at Tokatoka Resort, Nadi, Fiji. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism of the Government of Fiji.
Cooperative Conference of Bihar
Gujarat State Cooperative Seminar for Women
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ICA-EU Partnership Updates
GCE Ambassador on cooperation in Indonesia
GCE is the Global Cooperative Entrepreneurs programme, initiated under the ICA-EU Partnership on Cooperatives in Development (#coops4dev). The initiative aims to support the creation of mentorship programmes to stimulate youth cooperative entrepreneurship worldwide.
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ICA-AP: IRMA – member partnership
Yogeshkumar Joshi from the Executive Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Rural) from Institute of Rural Management, Anand, joined the Nepal Agriculture Cooperative Central Federation Ltd. (NACCFL), Kathmandu for a 2.5 month long internship. The internship was facilitated by ICA-AP. Yogeshkumar shares his internship experience and learnings with us:
Legal Framework Analysis National Reports of Japan, Jordan, Korea, Nepal, Palestine, and Vietnam can be viewed at the coops4dev website. The reports of Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand have been received and will be uploaded soon.
The Mapping of Cooperatives aims at collecting and publicising statistics of cooperatives in different countries to showcase the impact and provide data for advocacy. National Reports for Iran and the Philippines can be accessed at the coops4dev website.
Country snapshots-16 country snapshots are now available on the ICA-AP website. These include snapshots for Australia, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, PNG, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and Vanuatu.
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ICA-AP Member Activities
Book Review: A Genealogy of the Cooperative
A Genealogy of the Cooperative by Mohammad Bahiraee of the Barg-e-No Research Cooperative, Iran, illustrates the rich history of the cooperative movement in Iran.
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Announcements
International Day of Cooperatives
The theme of the International Day of Cooperatives 2020 is COOPERATIVES FOR CLIMATE ACTION. We are inviting the global cooperative community to continue pushing for actions that will address climate change. This critical situation is putting lives and livelihoods at risk, disrupting vital ecosystems for people and the planet.
The ICA-AP Committee on Cooperative Research invites paper proposals for the 15th ICA-AP Cooperative Research Conference, which will be held from November 25-27, 2020 in Trivandrum, India.
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ICA Asia-Pacific @all rights reserved 2020
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