"Many Asia and Pacific countries are showing that setting strong targets for women and girls in response and recovery programs, and developing specialised activities to mitigate COVID-19 effects are both realistic and necessary....Let’s make sure that 2021 really does usher in a better normal for women and girls." from "A Better Normal for Women and Girls After COVID-19" by Bambang Susantono and Anita Bhatia.
Susantono is the Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development; and Bhatia is the Deputy Executive Director for the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).
See this link for the complete article on the Asian Development Bank (ADB) website.
#betternormal #genderequalitycoops
by GERC Inc.
On the occasion of the 2021 “International Women’s Day (IWD),” launches its advocacy comics publication “Caring for Our Lives, Our Community, Our Earth—The Call for Women, Men, Youth, and Co-ops.”
This comics shows how Unlad Co-op in Unlad town, fully activated its socio and economic dual role as a co-op to address an urgent situation that threatened the organization’s stability; its members’ and community’s well-being and livelihood; and, on the bigger scale, the planet’s existence, if no action would be done by people from local to global levels. This comics features Unlad town, Unlad Co-op, and characters that are all fictional. Any similarity to any real organizations and persons is coincidental. But the story in this comics hopes to make co-ops and other development organizations aware that the cause of the urgent situation that Unlad Co-op faced—that is, environmental degradation and climate change—needs to be worked on through well-researched and well-planned and coordinated actions. And in these actions, every woman and man, both adults and youth, can have a role to do, in partnership with other stakeholders, and using the “Cooperative Principles and Values” as the foundation of the objectives and actions. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) can guide the actions to be taken. The UN SDGs in 2015 is a global call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Like the U-Activate group established by volunteers in Unlad Co-op in the story, let’s all answer the call to be active and committed defenders of our community and our planet. As environmental defenders are saying: “There’s no Planet B!”
The COVID-19 section of this comics further emphasizes co-ops’ role in effectively helping members, especially in times of great need. As the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened various issues in people’s daily lives, it challenges head-on co-op’s social and economic role and relevance that have inspired people to invest in co-ops their life savings, their very own lives, and their future. The presence of COVID-19 requires co-ops’ full activation.
This comics is published and distributed by GERC Inc. for its Project “Institutionalizing Women Empowerment and Gender Equality in Philippine Cooperatives,” implemented in partnership with We Effect for its Philippines Program “Equality First: Working Together Towards Gender Equality, Transformative Housing, and Empowerment of the Rural Folk (Working TOGETHER).”
The printed version of the comics is available--please see the details below.
PRINTED COPIES AVAILABLE, GET YOUR COPIES NOW!!!
If your co-op/organization wants to avail of complimentary copies of the comics “Caring for Our Lives, Our Community, Our Earth—The Call for Women, Men, Youth, and Co-ops,” please e-mail your request to GERC team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The first 80 co-ops/organizations that will e-mail GERC Inc. their request for complimentary copies will each receive 10 copies. GERC Inc. will send the copies by courier to the co-ops/organizations by the 1st week of April 2021.
The requesting co-op/organization will be the one to pay the courier cost (in advance) and send the amount by GCash to GERC Inc. The GCash transaction slip, as proof of payment, will be attached by the co-op/organization to its e-mail to GERC Inc.
E-mail now to GERC Inc. (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) your request for 10 complimentary copies of the comics, and include the following important information:
A) Full details:
1. Name and position of authorized contact person
2. Name of co-op/organization
3. Complete postal address
4. E-mail address/mobile number
B) Attachment: copy of GCash transaction slip (for courier cost), paid to GERC Inc.
Here are the GCash number of GERC Inc. and the courier amounts (Philippines):
GERC Inc. GCash -- 09178155181
Courier costs via LBC (for 10 copies of comics)
-Luzon and outside NCR area: PhP205.00
-Visayas and Mindanao: PhP255.00
For Metro Manila co-ops/organizations, the GERC Inc. will send the comics via Grab or Lalamove, and the courier payment will be paid to Grab or Lalamove by the recipient.
(Source: https://pcw.gov.ph/pcw-lauds-ltos-move-to-address-policies-related-to-the-use-of-maiden-name/)
Release date: Dec. 24, 2020