While chairing the Women’s Committee for Asia Pacific along with Ms. Chitose Arai, (Vice President of JCCU (Japan) and Vice Chairperson, ICA-AP) an eminent woman co-operator from India Dr. Nandini Azad said cooperative registrars should help women gain leading positions in their areas of operations.
Dr. Nandini Azad (President, Indian Cooperative Network for Women) attended the ICA-AP conference of Central Registrars entitled Second ICA-AP Cooperative Registrars Forum, “Creating Enabling Legal Framework and Policies to Promote Sustainable Development of Cooperatives in the 21st Century” (17 – 19th April, 2019 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam).
As the gender focal point on the ICA-AP Regional board Dr. Azad also presented to the board the 6 monthly activities that won appreciation. She was the only senior cooperator from India to make a presentation at the Vietnam conference.
Nandini spoke on the topic of Data and Cooperatives in the Asia and Pacific. In this detailed presentation she highlighted the international covenants available for women in cooperatives, ICA-AP cooperative ministers’ conferences and resolutions on gender; data studies by ICA-AP.
Her study entitled “Gender is more than a statistic” on Status of women in cooperatives in 18 countries in the region was explained at length. She also recounted the Data workshop conducted for members of the women’s committee in Guiyang, China and Malaysia.
She appealed to all Central Registrars of cooperatives in the region to support quotas for women to enhance membership and poor number of women in boards and at decision making levels. Seen here is Azad in the middle seated in a blue sari with Ms. Chitose Arai vice chairperson of ICA-AP and all women participants at the conference.