Throughout 2025, co-ops are celebrating the second International Year of Cooperatives. But in March, organisations also highlighted how mutual businesses contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5) on women’s empowerment, as part of events marking the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDfA) adopted at the fourth World Conference on Women in China in 1995.
On 19 March, the International Cooperative Alliance Asia Pacific office 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).
The event heard examples from throughout the region about how gender-based policies and institutional mechanisms have been put in place to advance women’s empowerment – and how co-ops have been vital to this work.
“Through this event, we aim to promote good practices on SDG5 in the co-operative sector in our region,” said event host, Simren Singh, gender and education lead at ICA-AP. “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 co-operatives.”
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”.
“The ICA-AP Women’s Committee has been focusing on the BDfA since its inception,” she said, “and this year is focusing on four strategic pillars.”
These are: economic empowerment; social empowerment; knowledge, education and training; and coalitions.
Related: Interview with ICA Gender Equality Committee chair Xiomara Nuñez de Cespedes
Ida Suhanya Jesu, gender and inclusion specialist at the International Labour Organization (ILO), based in Sri Lanka, said the event served as “a powerful reminder of the progress we have made in advancing gender equality and the critical role that co-operatives play in achieving meaningful and lasting change”.
She described how 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,” citing India, Indonesia and the Philippines as examples of countries that have strengthened legal frameworks to promote gender responsive policies.
But challenges remain, she warned, which “demand innovative and community-driven solutions […] This is where co-operatives come into play.”
The ILO has supported co-operatives globally, she added, such as through gender-sensitive policy development in Indonesia, post-conflict rebuilding programmes in Sri Lanka and financial literacy training in Nepal. Wider solutions include increased policy support, capacity building, public-private partnerships, gender-inclusive leadership, and digital tools to strengthen co-operatives – but she reminded delegates that achieving gender equality requires “collective effort”.
Priti Patel, vice chair of the ICA-AP Women’s Committee and member of the National Women’s Committee of the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI), highlighted the importance of pro-active gender-based policies in co-operatives to empower women economically and socially, and help them access resources, leadership roles, fair wages, and a supportive work environment.
Her presentation demonstrated how co-operatives play a key role in achieving the SDGs; 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 Co-operative Society (where she is vice chair), which provides financial aid and skill development to women; Sewa, an all-women co-operative 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.
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 co-operatives and mutuals.
In 2016, it initiated a research project to analyse gender inclusion in leadership roles and found that while co-operatives had more women in chair roles compared to traditional 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 Seaborne, adding that any commitment to change “needs to start at the top”.
BCCM started conversations with the boards and the senior management of their members, and tracked data over the last six years. They 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 co-operative and mutuals, we’ve slightly increased proportion of women chairs – and we’ve dramatically increased the proportion of women who are CEOs.”
From the Philippines, Hermes Vergara, chair of the gender and development committee of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) shared how the government and NATCCO were working to promote gender equality in co-ops.
Twelve years ago, the Philippine Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) issued Memorandum Circular 2013-22 to integrate gender and development (GAD) into policies – a move that required co-operatives 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 co-operatives, focusing on people, policies, programmes, and enabling mechanisms.
NATCCO has allocated a board seat for a women’s representative and has committed 5% of its education and training fund to support gender equality programmes, said Vergara. It has also published a Gender Mainstreaming Manual for Cooperatives, aimed at guiding co-ops 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”.
