ICA Gender Equality Committee

A thematic committee of the ICA

www.ica.coop/gender

History and Aims
Structure
Constitution

About the Committee

The ICA Gender Equality Committee is a thematic committee of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) which promotes equality between women and men and gender integration in the co-operative movement and society. It was formerly known as the ICA Global Women's Committee. The Committee in changing its name, seeks membership from both women and men.

History and Aims

Founded in 1965, it is a forum for the discussion and the exchange of experiences and ideas of worldwide co-operative gender issues.

The vision of the Committee is of a gender integrated movement and a society where women's and men's values, skills and contributions are valued equally and can be utilised on an equal basis, thus sharing rights and responsibilities, and where the organisation of work and decision-making structures are based on women's needs and values as well as those of men. The Committee is a catalyst for the implementation of equal opportunity.

The Committee advocates self-empowerment and the promotion of women through positive actions such as: gender awareness training for women and men; training schemes; career incentives; recruiting and promotion schemes; mentorship programmes; access to decision-making bodies. It calls for defined targets and timetables as a means of achieving equality between women and men.

Structure

The Committee has adopted a Constitution that set out its governance structure. The Committee is governed by its members who are nominated by ICA Member Organisations. Members of the Committee are individuals mandated by their organisations. They generally meet in an annually plenary session where statutory matters are addressed. In addition to electing a Chairperson, members also elect an Executive Committee consisting of the Chairpersons of the regional gender/women committees, plus other elected members. The Executive Committee generally meets twice a year.

The Committee also facilitates the establishment of regional gender or women's committees. The Americas region established its Comité Regional de las Américas de Mujeres Cooperativistas (CRAMC) which became the Comité de Equidad de Género; in Asia/Pacific, members established a Regional Women's Committee. In addition, ICA Africa has also formed a Pan-African Women Co-operators' Network which holds gender fora, the most recent adopted a Strategy Framework for Equitable Gender Participation in Co-operatives in Africa. See more information on the 2009 Gender Forum: "Achieving Gender Equality in Co-operatives for Sustainable Development" > > >

Activities

The ICA Gender Equality Committee's main area of work is the implementation of the ICA Gender Equality Strategy at the ICA at the global, regional and sectoral levels. As such it carries out a number of awareness raising activities including orgnising meetings and seminars, and issuing statements. More > > >

Last Updated: 9 Feburary 2011