Leadership Training Manual
                 for Women
          Leaders of Cooperatives
                International Labour Office
        Copyright International Labour Office 2005
        First published 2005
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        Leadership Training Manual for Women Leaders of Cooperatives
        ISBN 92-2-117066-7
          92-2-118173-1 (web pdf)
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        Designed and printed in India
                                                              Foreword
                     The ICA and ILO partnership dates back to as early as 1920, when technical cooperation and collaboration
                     started between the two organizations. The Common Cooperative Agenda for ILO and ICA Joint Action,
                     formalized on 10 February 2004, served to further consolidate the long standing partnership, towards
                     achieving the common objective of combating social exclusion and poverty through cooperative
                     development.
                     While enumerating the basic principles and implementation guidelines, the Agenda gives top priority to
                     promoting gender equality in all programme operations. This is critical to realizing the principle of democratic
                     member participation, which forms the very foundation for cooperative functioning. The ICA Statement of
                     Cooperative Identity (1995), and the new ILO Recommendation for Promotion of Cooperatives (2002),
                     seek to promote “the fullest participation in economic and social development of all people.”
                     However, women’s participation in formally registered mixed cooperatives remains low as compared to
                     men. Socio-economic and cultural conditioning over the ages, account for their low confidence levels
                     and lack of leadership skills, linked with the obvious lack of opportunities for education, training or exposure,
                     communication and networking. Studies undertaken by the ILO on “Legal Constraints to Women’s
                     Participation in Cooperatives” (2002), reveal that while national laws are generally ‘gender neutral’, there
                     remain other constraints linked to other related laws including customary law, which restrict women from
                     conducting businesses independently or accessing positions of leadership and decision making.
                     The ICA-Asia Pacific, through its regional Women’s Committee, launched a campaign to impress upon
                     member cooperatives and Governments to adopt appropriate measures to enable the promotion of
                     women’s participation in cooperatives. Way back in May 1997, the ICA Regional Office for Asia and the
                     Pacific (ICAROAP) and the Asian Women in Cooperative Development Forum (AWCF) organized a
                     conference on “Women in Decision Making” and declared the need to build women’s capacities for equal
                     participation in cooperative functioning, leadership and decision making.
                     Towards this end, an ICA /ILO collaborative process was initiated in 1997, to produce a training manual
                     to enable cooperative trainers towards facilitating women’s leadership development in cooperatives. It
                     may be argued that many training tools for women’s empowerment and gender sensitization are already
                     in existence. However, the specific requirements in terms of cooperative management procedures called
                     for a training tool specific to women in cooperatives. The draft manual was jointly authored and was
                     revised following a validation workshop in Bangkok in August 2001. The joint validation process resulted
                     in a more concise format, with participatory, user friendly methodologies. The revised version has since
                     been tested and successfully used by the ICA in four training programmes so far, namely in Kuala
                     Lumpur, Malaysia in October 2002, Pune, India in June 2003, Bandung, Indonesia in March 2004 and in
                     Isfahan, Iran in June 2004. The programmes have been well received and need is now felt for its publication,
                     for wider dissemination and use.
                     The Manual consists of seven modules, comprising several units, and draws upon existing ILO tools on
                     gender analysis, equality and development. The topics broadly cover fundamentals of cooperatives,
                     gender sensitization and self transformation, leadership, coping with challenges, organization and
                     enterprise management. While the Manual aims at building women’s capacities and may require only
                     women’s participation in some of the modules, in others, a general participation of both men and women
                     is recommended towards securing a total commitment.
                     We trust the manual will be useful for cooperative trainers towards facilitating gender equity and equality
                     and thereby ensuring a truly democratic process, with total gender integration and participation at all
                     levels of cooperatives.
                     Rahaiah Baheran                                  Jurgen Schwettmann
                     Chairperson, ICA Regional Women’s                Chief, Cooperative branch
                     Committee for Asia and Pacific                   Job Creation and Enterprise Development Department
                     International Cooperative Alliance               International Labour Organization
                      Introductory Remarks
        The history of ICA Asia Pacific initiative for integrating women and gender concerns in cooperatives
        begins in the early eighties when this office introduced a special women’s programme during the
        United Nations Women’s Decade (1975-1985). The ICA-ROAP , through this programme, had
        been able to create awareness and conducive environment for enhancing women’s participation
        in cooperatives.
        In 1990, the Human Resources Development Project of the ICA identified need for gender integration
        and put women’s participation as an important agenda with a view to answer the big question on
        gender integration-how? It was felt that there should be an effective and ongoing need based
        programme for capacity building of women as well as of the cooperatives. Since the region is full
        of socio-cultural diversity and needs of women are different in different countries, the ICA
        commissioned a study in 14 different countries in the region to identify the situation and requirements
        of women in cooperatives.
        The situation analysis which emerged from the studies formed an important basis for developing
        need-based programmes. In order to finalize necessary actions based on the results and to sensitize
        the member cooperative organizations for gender integration, a regional consultation was held in
        Sri Lanka in 1992 followed by a more strategic Gender Planning Conference in Tokyo in 1993.
        During this time the ICA ROAP office was able to establish a specific gender programme unit in
        the office. Meanwhile, in 1995 the ICA adopted its identify statement, which mentioned the
        importance of gender for the first time. Thereafter, several Regional Consultations/Conferences
        were organized. As a result of continuous efforts and increasing activities on gender integration,
        ICA Regional Women’s Committee for Asia and Pacific was formed in 1997. The ICA, with Asian
        Women in Development Forum, held a conference in Tagaytay, Philippines, in May 1997 focusing
        on capacity building of women as well as cooperatives for leadership development of women and
        gender integration at all levels of cooperatives in the region.
        The event led to an effective collaboration between ICA ROAP and ILO COOPNET and a joint
        Regional preparatory workshop was held on Cooperative Leadership Training for Women (Dec.
        1997). Both agreed to collaborate to develop a trainers’ training manual for leadership development
        of women in cooperatives.
        The manual was validated in 2001 and has already been tested in four Regional Trainers’ Training
        Programmes. Though the manual suggests twelve days for the training programme, there is practical
        difficulty for trainees to spare two weeks at a stretch for the training. Therefore, the text can be
        reorganized to fit in 5 days of class room training and one day study visit to a successful cooperative.
        The manual will be disseminated to all the members of ICA in the region. I hope this will be helpful
        in enhancing skills and capacity of women to take up leadership responsibilities in their cooperatives.
        Shil Kwan Lee
        Regional Director
        International Cooperative Alliance – Asia Pacific
        vi                                          Foreword