Cooperatives help transgender communities to be more economically empowered

The ILO initiated a discussion with Indonesian transgender communities to find a cooperative model that could help them more economically resilience and empowered.

News | Jakarta, Indonesia | 22 March 2021
Transgender persons tend to work in the informal sector
Only 10 percent of Indonesian transgender persons work in the formal economy revealed by the ILO’s Discrimination at Work on the basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (PRIDE at Work) study in 2016. Due to limited employment opportunities, they tend to work in the informal sector (as street singers or sex workers) or aspire to be entrepreneurs in the fashion or beauty line of businesses.

Why cooperatives is beneficial for transgender community. The cooperatives is a form of collective action that is stronger from an individual action. Some of the benefits include shared workload, pooled resources, stronger negotiating power, cost saving and knowledge sharing."

Simel Esim, Head of ILO Cooperative Unit (COOP)
To assist the transgender community build better livelihoods and economic lives, the ILO conducted an initial webinar on cooperatives model for Indonesian transgender community. Virtually held on 17 March, the webinar was attended by around 30 participants from various transgender communities in Jakarta, West Java and Yogyakarta.

The webinar was facilitated by the ILO Cooperatives Unit (COOP), headed by Simel Esim, Head of ILO COOP. Simel emphasized that the ILO has recognized the importance of cooperatives as a means to achieve social justice and full employment for all since its creation in 1919.

“Why cooperatives is beneficial for transgender community. The cooperatives is a form of collective action that is stronger from an individual action. Some of the benefits include shared workload, pooled resources, stronger negotiating power, cost saving and knowledge sharing,” she explained.

The ILO COOP team also shared the experiences of transgender cooperatives models in three countries: Argentina, India and the Philippines. They also encouraged the participants to learn challenges and opportunities from these countries, particularly the Philippines as Indonesia’s neighbouring country.

In Argentina, the cooperatives deals with fashionwear as the main line businesses, while in India, the cooperatives is supported by the local government focusing on social welfare of transgender communities. In the Philippines, the cooperatives aims to provide financial management assistance for its members trough financial training, advice and assistance as a good way for peer learning.

Learning from previous failures

Responding to the lessons learnt, the participating transgender communities shared their main challenges in the development of cooperatives in their communities. They identified lack of management capacities, lack of members’ commitment and lack of fixed incomes as the main barriers to develop cooperatives that benefit its members.

“It is difficult to find individuals who are capable in managing the cooperatives. As a result, the cooperatives could not operate as it should be,” told Rully Mallay, Kebaya Foundation . Different story shared by Rere Agistya from Sanggar Suara. “Our cooperatives should be closed as members did not have commitment to return their loans,” she said.

Learning from our failures, we now focus on our permanent members who have fixed employment and income. For the first year, we collect funding from our members to be used as the cooperative capital in the second year."

Barby Gita from Srikandi Pasundan
Learning from these barriers, one of the transgender community in West Java, Srikandi Pasundan Foundation, is now initiating a cooperative development for its members. Supported by the Provincial Cooperative Office, they are now in the process of collecting a starting capital from its 25 members.

“Learning from our failures, we now focus on our permanent members who have fixed employment and income. For the first year, we collect funding from our members to be used as the cooperative capital in the second year,” shared Barby Gita, adding that they also plan to expand the cooperative by recruiting non-permanent members, particularly from our community with no fixed income.

The webinar concluded with the ways to move forward. Tendy Gunawan, ILO’s programme officer for equal employment opportunity, highlighted the importance of good understanding about cooperatives and its challenges as well as opportunities for transgender communities as an initial step. He also discussed three ILO’s modules related to cooperatives: Think Coop, Start Coop and Manage Coop.

“The ILO can support the cooperatives models for Indonesian transgender communities by utilizing the ILO modules. For example, the ILO’s Think Coop Module is perfect for those who still need to learn about the cooperatives and how it works, while the second module, Start Coop, is the right module for those who have initiate the development of cooperative like Srikandi Pasundan,” explained Tendy.

To date, Indonesia has more than 150,000 active cooperatives, focused on empowering communities. Cooperatives offer members access to capital with low-interest rates and flexibility of repayment.