Year 2007 marked the end of implementing the first phase of the “it@coops Project” also known as “Information Technology for Southeast Asian Co-operatives Project.” As a three-year project covering the period 2004-2007, the Project was able to affect significant changes in the field of co-op development for Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand especially with the infusion of different information technology (IT) applications in the entrepreneurship work of these co-operatives.

Presented here are some of the Project’s major achievements per pillar or component:

A. Training of Trainers (TOT)

The Project pride itself in developing a grand total of 60 co-op staff to be IT Specialists for the Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT), Thailand; the Forum for Indonesian Co-operatives Movement (FORMASI Indonesia); and the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO), Philippines. These IT Specialists, 20 from each country, were trained to: provide or enhance the IT knowledge and skills of co-op members and entrepreneurs; assist co-operatives as well as co-op women and men in improving their products and services; and assist co-operatives in setting up business development centers in their respective co-operatives or communities. They had undergone intensive training since October 2005 and were equipped with basic and advance IT technical know-how, other skills in software training, and gender awareness to meet the need of co-operatives.

Click here for the Directory of IT Specialists.

Equipped with these skills, the IT Specialists conducted numerous trainings and were able to train an aggregate of 4,728 women and men co-op staff, leaders, and members (about 60 percent were women) in a span of 30 months (from July 2006 until December 2007):
▫ 1,241 co-op staff, leaders, and members (64 percent women) for CULT
▫ 1,991 co-op staff, leaders, and members (42 percent women) for FORMASI Indonesia
▫ 1,496 co-op staff, leaders, and members (75 percent women) for NATCCO

Other positive impacts brought by the Project to the IT Specialists include work promotion or given more work responsibilities, and increased confidence at work as they were sought as trainers/ resource persons or even consultants on IT-related matters. Furthermore, aside from enhancing and developing the IT training materials they use suited to the needs of their clientele, the IT Specialists contributed in generating savings for their co-operatives as their new found skills enabled their respective co-operatives to diminish reliance on technical persons providing IT trainings and services to their co-ops.

On top of this, an unexpected accomplishment for this component was the increase in the number of the IT Specialists to 74 brought by CULT who was able train 14 new IT Specialists (93 percent women) from their second wave IT training conducted within the year.

Other Regional Participation of the IT Specialists

As part of further enhancing the skills of the IT Specialists, selected IT Specialists attended four regional activities organized or coursed through AWCF and InWEnt. The first event they participated in was at “Asia Source II” which was attended by more than 130 IT professionals from non-government organizations (NGOs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from 27 countries from South and Southeast Asia. Conducted from 22-30 January 2007 in Sukabumi, Indonesia, this nine-day Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) technology camp was aimed at promoting the use of FOSS for social and economic development, and to build a network of FOSS practitioners and trainers in Asia.

As a promoter of FOSS and to expose AWCF member-organizations who were implementing the Project, AWCF was represented in this activity by five participants representing CULT, FORMASI Indonesia, and NATCCO. At the end of the technology camp, the AWCF participants committed to introduce and intensify the use of FOSS at their respective co-operatives and organizations either by influencing other co-ops to adopt and maximize the use of the FOSS in all facets of their organizations, and/or come up with a more interactive website that will maximize e-communication between and among co-op members.

By the second quarter of the year, three IT Specialists from CULT and six of the Steering Committee members attended the “Training on Website Development” conducted in Bangkok, Thailand on 11 May 2007. This one-day session on virtual networking was part of boosting the skills of the it@coops stakeholders and at the same time, encouraging them to use free and open source software (FOSS) as the content system management (CMS) in developing their umbrella-organization’s websites.

For their third quarter special activity, eight IT Specialists and seven it@coops Steering Committee members joined the Regional Forum on “ICT Applications in Enterprise Development, Building Networks and Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in Co-operatives” that was held in Bangkok, Thailand from 30 July to 4 August 2007. In this conference, these it@coops advocates joined the participants in identifying activities and strategies where information and communication technology (ICT) can be applied in co-op enterprises thereby promoting the empowerment of women along with the reduction of poverty in the region.

Along with the Regional Forum participants, the it@coops advocates committed themselves and their organizations to: further enhance entrepreneurship development in their respective organizations particularly through the use and application of ICT; continue establishing linkages and networking with other co-operatives and entrepreneurs in the region to strengthen entrepreneurial initiatives for co-ops, especially its women members; and involve other women entrepreneurs in their co-operative or enterprise activities.

And lastly, before the year ended, the it@coops advocates were in center-stage as they were the core participants in the Regional Forum on “it@coops: Empowering Co-operatives through Information Technology" held from 19 to 21 November 2007 in Antipolo City, Philippines. With more than 70 participants in attendance, this event was attended by 47 it@coops advocates—36 IT Specialists, six it@coops Steering Committee members, and five business development center (BDC) managers.

This Regional Forum enabled the IT Specialists to share their experiences and learning with their IT Specialist counterpart from the two other it@coops participating countries. Moreover, this activity was conducted to inspire more co-ops to use IT to improve their competitiveness, to enhance co-op operations and engagement in entrepreneurial work, and to set up IT-based BDCs that will give services to co-op members who may be entrepreneurs, including co-op women members who may have difficulty accessing business services.

Download here the Directory of Participants of the Regional Forum on it@coops "Empowering Co-operatives through Information Technology".

B. Setting up of IT-Supported Business Development Centers (BDCs)

Another major achievement of this Project for this year was the operationalization of 17 co-op IT-supported business development centers (BDCs) that provide additional income and employment to co-op members. Most of these BDCs were providing IT-related trainings and services while the rest were focused on business development services such as business counseling, database for members’ products, product promotion, and marketing development. Breakdown of the 17 co-op/ NGO BDCs established were as follows:
▫ six BDCs for CULT (Watyangkhaoyoi Credit Union, Suwannaphum Credit Union, Credit Union League of Thailand, Pattanachumchon Banputabak Credit Union, Huaykhanang-Tungna Credit Union, and Klongchan Credit Union)
▫ five BDCs for FORMASI Indonesia (Bina Desa, Bina Swadaya, LPPSE, PERSEPSI, and Koperasi Kredit Melati)
▫ six BDCs for NATCCO (Paco-Soriano Pandacan Development Cooperative, Nueva Vizcaya Alay Kapwa Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Gubat St. Anthony Cooperative, Labo Progressive Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Cebu People’s Cooperative, and Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative)

Along with the noted increase in the number of women managing co-op entrepreneurial activities or owning their own micro-enterprises, these BDCs enabled co-op members, especially their women members, to market their products better hence increasing their personal earnings. All of these were made possible through the use of a co-op-product showroom and use of IT-enhanced packaging and promotional materials.

Another breakthrough of this component was the entry of co-operatives into e-commerce as some co-operatives were already looking at the possibility of marketing their products and services via the Internet.

Download here the Monongraph "Learning from Experience: Co-op Business Development Centers"

C. Setting up of National and Transregional Virtual Networks among Co-operatives

The third component of this Project only blossomed this year with the redesigning, creation, or enhancement of national- and regional-level websites of the project stakeholders. Three websites focused on sharing the results of the it@coops Project implemented in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines were also created for this year.

The following were the major websites developed and/or enhanced through the Project:

national umbrella organizations
http://www.formasi-indonesia.or.id
http://www.cultthai.coop
http://www.natcco.coop

it@coops national umbrella organizations
http://www.it-coops indonesia.com
http://it-coops.natcco.coop
http://www.it-coops.cultthai.coop

regional organizations
http://www.it-coops.org
http://www.coopwomen.org

A joint regional mailing list of all the IT Specialists and the other persons who took part in implementing the it@coops Project was also created, itcoops_SEAsia@natcco.coop, which will enable exchange of experiences and information, and establishment of regular communication among the it@coops advocates. Access to training materials and project documentation was also made easy as these can be accessed through the online Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE) by any of the project stakeholders although level of accessibility differs among the project actors.

The following were the 33 other websites developed or enhanced by the project implementers for their member or partner co-ops as of December 2007:
▫ CULT - 16 websites
▫ Bansaeng Arun Credit Union (http://www.cubsa.cultthai.coop)
▫ Bannongsamakkee Credit Union (http://www.bannong.cultthai.coop)
▫ Chalodom Credit Union (http://www.chld.cultthai.coop)
▫ CULT Education and Development Department (http://www.edu.cultthai.coop)
▫ Huaykhanang-Tungna Credit Union (http://www.htn.cultthai.coop)
▫ NHK Nongchock Credit Union (http://www.nongchok.cultthai.coop)
▫ Nongchock Credit Union (http://www.nongchok.cultthai.coop)
▫ Pattanachumchon Banputabak Credit Union (http://www.cuptb.cultthai.coop)
▫ Puenkru Credit Union (http://www.pk.cultthai.coop)
▫ Ruamjai Thayang Credit Union (http://www.rnj.cultthai.coop)
▫ Shane Leasing Credit Union (http://www.shanecoop.net)
▫ Suwannaphum Credit Union (http://www.swp.cultthai.coop)
▫ Thai Clinipro Credit Union (http://www.tkc.cultthai.coop)
▫ Wat Nongkae School Credit Union (http://www.nongkae.cultthai.coop)
▫ Wongsamphan Credit Union (http://www.cuswp.cultthai.coop)
▫ Women in Cooperatives’ Products Development Center, CULT (http://www.wcpc.culltthai.coop)
▫ FORMASI Indonesia – 12 websites
▫ Aliansi Petani Indonesia (http://www.aliansi-petani-indonesia.org)
▫ Bina Desa (http://www.binadesa.or.id)
▫ Bina Swadaya (http://www.binaswadaya.org)
▫ Community Technology Center Project (http://ctc.formasi-indonesia.or.id)
▫ Coops of Karya Insa (http://karyainsa.binadesa.or.id)
▫ Coops of Melati (http://kopditmelati.phpnet.us)
▫ Environment Parliament Watch (http://www.epwjakarta.org)
▫ LPTP (http://www.lptp.or.id)
▫ LP3ES (http://www.lp3es.or.id)
▫ PERSEPSI (http://persepsi.phpnet.us)
▫ PESADA (http://www.pesada.or.id)
▫ PPSW (http://www.ppsw.or.id)
▫ NATCCO – 5 websites
▫ Baao Parish Multi-Purpose Cooperative (http://www.baaocoop.com)
▫ Cebu People’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative (http://www.mycoop.ph)
▫ Labo Progressive Multi-Purpose Cooperative (http://www.labocoop.org)
▫ Lingayen Catholic Credit Cooperative (http://www.geocities.com/mmmararac/info.html)
▫ Tagum Cooperative (http://www.geocities.com/tagum.html)


D. Project Monitoring and Evaluation

The it@coops Project is continuously monitored and assessed per year with the help of InWEnt Consultant, Ms Renate Pasch, and the presence of InWEnt through its Senior Project Manager-ICT for Development, Mr. Balthas Seibold. Project monitoring and evaluation is conducted through actual field visits and evaluation during Steering Committee Meetings.

As the it@coops Project is on its last year of implementation, a number of activities were conducted to assess project performance. Aside from the regular monitoring visits conducted by AWCF as part of project monitoring and to be abreast with what was happening at the field level, a “Project Evaluation” on the part of InWEnt was conducted from 19 April to 2 June 2007 with Mr. Benjamin Coester, InWEnt Consultant, as the Project Evaluator. On these days, he visited the it@coops umbrella organizations and selected primary co-operatives based in the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia aimed at further improving the services being offered by the Project.

This was followed by three meetings intended to assess the status of the Project: the “it@coops Coordinators Meeting” held last 9-11 May 2007 in Pathumwan Princess Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand; the “5th it@coops Steering Committee Meeting” held in Nuremberg, Germany on 2-4 July 2007; and the “6th it@coops Steering Committee Meeting” held in Antipolo City, Philippines on 22-23 November 2007. In these meetings, the project stakeholders were able to assess and evaluate the Project on a regular basis. Other highlights of the said meetings were the adjustment of the it@coops plan intended for May to December 2007 vis-à-vis the over-all objectives of the Project (Coordinators Meeting); presentation of the field visit cum evaluation results of Mr. Coester, and brainstorming on the national and regional sustainability plan of the project stakeholders (Steering Committee Meeting in Nuremberg, Germany); and presentation of the it@coops project evaluation collated by Ms Renate Pasch, InWEnt Consultant; along with the over-all achievements and sustainability plans presented by the Project Managers and IT Coordinators, and the planning for future directions of the project (Steering Committee Meeting in Antipolo City, Philippines).