INTRODUCTION
The SEWA Cooperative Federation, Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) and the International Cooperative Alliance: Asia-Pacific (ICA-AP) organised a webinar on November 19th, 2021, titled Rebuilding an Inclusive World in the Wake 1 of the Pandemic: Women’s Cooperatives Lead the Way . The webinar focused on the role that women-owned cooperatives have played during the COVID-19 pandemic in protecting the lives and livelihoods of their households, and their communities. This note outlines the emerging evidence from studies that was presented in the webinar and women cooperators’ experiences in their voices. It also presents recommendations for action to strengthen women’s cooperatives and to create an enabling environment for their growth, thereby strengthening local economies.
The webinar consisted of 3 panel discussions – Panel 1 on ‘Presenting Evidence – Studies on the Effect
of COVID-19 on Informal Women Workers and The Role of Cooperatives/Collectives in Response’
(Janhavi Dave, HomeNet International; Palak Gadhiya, SEWA Cooperative Federation; Simren Singh,
ICA-AP).
Panel 2 – ‘Women Workers in their own Voices: Rebuilding Post the Pandemic’ (Frances Onokpea,
Federation of Informal Workers Association, Nigeria; Regee Khadgi, SABAH, Nepal; Ruth Diaz,
COOPFENAMUTRA, Dominican Republic; Hitakshi Gamit, Megha Agriculture Cooperative, India).
