ILO COOP/SSE participated in a virtual coffee talk on good practices on women’s leadership in cooperatives in the recovery from COVID19

The virtual session on “Celebrating Women in Coops: Thriving and effecting change during COVID19” took place on March 17, 2021 with the participation of more than 170 viewers on the occasion of Women’s Month.

News | 18 March 2021
To mark the National Women’s Month, CLIMBS Insurance Cooperative in the Philippines conducted a virtual coffee talk on good practices on women and leadership in cooperatives during COVID19.

The event consisted of two sessions, one with keynote speakers and another with panelists and discussants. National cooperative organizations and government institutions supporting cooperatives participated as speakers in the virtual session.

The virtual coffee talk also hosted two international speakers, Liz Green from ICMIF as well as ILO COOP Manager. Ms Esim reflected on four issue areas related to COVID19 recovery, namely essential workers, economic hardship, care work and gender based violence, with a specific focus on cooperative responses.

She noted that the ICA Declaration on Decent Work and Against Harassment, adopted in 2018 can be operationalized to respond to some of these challenges. In this context, she underlined proper valuation of women’s work in essential services and ensuring equal pay for work of equal value are priority strategies. She further suggested that cooperatives and their organizations can take proactive measures to increase the participation and representation of women in their decision-making bodies.

The discussion following the presentations focused on measures that have been undertaken by cooperatives during COVID19 including enhancing women’s leadership, and what further measures could be undertaken.