Members of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) youth network gathered online to hear from the four candidates for the presidency of the ICA Youth Network Executive Committee.
The candidates, Ana Aguirre, Leslie Alvarado, Linah Sohelo and Mabruck Mpangule, put forward their aims and aspirations for the Youth Committee presidency and took questions from young co-operators during the session.
Ana Aguirre, who currently serves as vice president for Europe in the ICA Youth Network and Executive Committee, was the first to present. Ms Aguirre is co-founder of TAZEBAEZ S.Coop, and has been involved in the ICA Youth Network over the course of its development into the ICA Youth Committee.
Leslie Alvarado was the next to present, outlining four key points he would focus on as president: representation of young co-operators within the ICA network, engagement of young co-operators outside of the ICA network, entrepreneurship, and wider global youth (those not currently involved in the co-op movement).
Next up was Linah Sohelo, who has been working for the past seven years at Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives. Ms Sohelo explained that a key piece of work for her as president would be to protect and expand the ICA Youth Network through innovative ideas that can be piloted at the ICA regional level.
The final candidate to present was Mabruck Mpangule, an accountant at Runali Co-operative Union in Tanzania, who got involved with the ICA Youth Network in 2019. The priorities Mr Mpangule laid out in his presentation included the execution of the ICA Youth Network’s existing Action Plan, to expand the ICA Youth Network membership and to build a “global village” of co-op youth who speak a common language around co-operation.
The ICA Youth Network was set up in 2003 to give advice, help and representation to the co-operative youth movement. The wider co-operative youth network is now represented by the ICA Youth Committee which is led by the ICA Youth Network Executive Committee.
The ICA Youth Network Executive Committee consists of nine members: a president, a vice president for each of the ICA’s for regions and four members at large. It exists to represent and respond to the needs of the ICA’s youth members.
Members of the ICA Youth Committee and its Youth Network will be able to vote for a presidential candidate electronically between 11 and 16 April 2022.
-CoopNews