On 19 March, ICA-AP and its Committee on Women organised a virtual parallel event at the 69th NGO Committee on the Status of Women Forum on the topic Policy Actions Matter: Cooperatives in Asia-Pacific and Their Initiatives to Foster SDG 5 (Gender Equality), under the theme ‘Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women’.
The event showcased practical examples from the cooperative sector in the Asia and Pacific region that showed how gender-based policies and institutional mechanisms have been put in place to advance women’s empowerment.
“2025 is a milestone year for the cooperative sector, as we celebrate the International Year of Cooperatives,” said event host, Simren Singh, Gender and Education Lead at ICA-AP. “Through this event, we aim to promote good practices on SDG5 in the cooperative sector in our region, and while doing this, we would like to emphasise the role of inclusive policies and mechanisms for the promotion and realisation of gender equality and equity in cooperatives.”
Chitose Arai, chair of the ICA-AP Committee on Women, said the theme of the 2025 International Women’s Day – Accelerate Action – was “a call to action to give equal rights, power, and opportunities to realise a feminist future where no one is left behind”.
She highlighted how, as well as being the second IYC, 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDfA) adopted at the fourth World Conference on Women in China in 1995.
“The ICA-AP Women's Committee has been focusing on the BDfA since its inception,” Ms Arai said, adding that this year, the committee is focusing on the strategic pillars of economic empowerment, social empowerment, knowledge, education and training, and coalitions.
The event’s keynote speaker was Ida Suhanya Jesu, Gender and Inclusion Specialist at the International Labour Organization, based in Sri Lanka.
“This occasion serves as a powerful reminder of the progress we have made in advancing gender equality and the critical role that cooperatives play in achieving meaningful and lasting change,” she said, emphasising the importance of the BDfA in advancing gender equality and the role of cooperatives in achieving meaningful change.
The BDfA “influenced policies throughout Asia, where cultural and socio economic diversity presents unique challenges and where measures have been adapted to align with its objectives,” she said, citing India, Indonesia and the Philippines as examples of countries that have strengthened legal frameworks to promote gender responsive policies.
But she acknowledged that significant challenges for women remain, including limited access to finance, restrictive legal frameworks, patriarchal resistance, and economic disruptions like climate change.
“These challenges demand innovative and community-driven solutions,” she said. “This is where cooperatives come into play.”
Ms Suhanya Jesu shared how the ILO has supported cooperatives globally, such as through financial literacy training in Nepal, gender-sensitive policy development in Indonesia and post-conflict rebuilding programmes in Sri Lanka. Wider solutions, she added, include increased policy support, capacity building, public-private partnerships, gender-inclusive leadership, and digital tools to strengthen cooperatives. “Achieving gender equality requires “collective effort.”
She concluded: “Cooperatives offer a sustainable and inclusive pathway to realising the vision of the BDfA, and by strengthening them, we can accelerate progress to our SDG5 […] Together, we can turn the aspiration of the Beijing Declaration into a reality, building a more just, equitable and sustainable future for all.”
Priti Patel, Vice Chairperson of the ICA-AP Women’s Committee and member of the National Women's Committee of the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), also highlighted the importance of gender-based policies in cooperatives to empower women economically and socially, and help them access resources, leadership roles, fair wages, and a supportive work environment.
Delivered by Ms Singh, Ms Patel’s presentation shared how cooperatives play a key role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; and how SDG5 was also linked with other goals, such as eradicating poverty (SDG1), promoting decent work (SDG8), and reducing inequalities (SDG10).
She highlighted several Indian cooperatives that exemplify gender-inclusive policies, including the Gujarat Mahila Credit Cooperative Society (where she is Vice Chair), which provides financial aid and skill development to women; SEWA, an all-women cooperative which offers financial services, training, and advocacy; and the Kamdhenu Self-Help Group and Mahila Sag Cooperative which empower women through self-reliance and entrepreneurship.
“These initiatives have transformed women's lives, enabling financial independence and entrepreneurship,” explained Ms Singh. “They demonstrate how gender-focused policies drive economic growth, social equity, and women's empowerment.”
Attendees also heard from Linda Seaborne, Senior Policy Advisor at the Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals (BCCM) in Australia, who presented an overview of gender-based policies in her country. The BCCM formed in 2013, after the first UN International Year of Cooperatives in 2012. It now represents over 1,800 cooperatives and mutuals.
In 2016, it initiated a research project to analyse gender inclusion in leadership roles and found that while cooperatives had more women in Chair roles compared to non-cooperative businesses, women were less likely to hold CEO positions.
“There were still obstacles preventing women from accessing top roles, such as lack of flexible work arrangements, limited access to leadership training, and insufficient sponsorship to support their career advancement,” said Ms Seaborne. “The commitment to change needs to start at the top, which is where we worked, as the BCCM, having conversations with the Boards and the senior management.”
BCCM has tracked data over the last six years and has found that while the proportion of women as CEOs and chairs of businesses in the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) have stayed relatively stable, “in the cooperative and mutuals, we've slightly increased the women as the proportion of women as chairs, but we've dramatically increased the proportion of women who are CEOs.”
From the Philippines, Hermes Vergara, Chairperson of the Gender and Development Committee of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) shares how the government and NATCCO were working to promote gender equality in cooperatives.
Twelve years ago, the Philippine Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) issued Memorandum Circular 2013-22 to integrate gender and development (GAD) into cooperative policies – a move that required cooperatives to implement gender equality policies, allocate a specific budget for gender-related projects, and establish mechanisms like a GAD committee.
In 2017, the CDA published a tool for assessing gender equality progress in cooperatives, focusing on people, policies, programs, and enabling mechanisms.
NATCCO has allocated a board seat for a women’s representative and has committed 5% of its Cooperative Education and Training Fund to support gender equality programs, said Vergara. It has also published a Gender Mainstreaming Manual for Cooperatives, aimed at guiding cooperatives to implement strong GAD programs.
This is vital, she added, because "gender equality is not a woman's issue, it is a human issue. It affects us all."
