Africa Womens' Forum participant: Botswana
WHERE: Botswana
WHEN: March 17 - 23, 2012 (approx, based on flights)
COST: $2000
APPLICATION PROCESS: Please send a detailed letter of interest and copy of your resume to Sarah Feldberg, Volunteer Coordinator at sarah.feldberg@coopscanada.coop by February 10, 2012. Only qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview.
*This is a voluntary assignment. All related costs including domestic airfare, ground transport, and a meal/incidental allowance will be covered by CCA. For more information contact Volunteer Co-ordinator, Sarah Feldberg.
BACKGROUND
For more than 25 years, the Canadian Co-operative Association and its partners around the world have worked together to improve the lives of people through co-operative action. In both its international and domestic programs, CCA promotes a model of development that is rooted in the co-operative tradition of building organizations that are community owned and controlled. A key element of this model is the promotion of co-operative financial institutions that provide accessible financial services to members.
In recent years, women have comprised the primary target group of development programs designed to extend financial services to under-served groups and communities. However, few women are in leadership positions in the financial services sector. Even in community-owned co-operatives and credit unions, there are often few women in management positions. In celebration of the women who have defied the odds and reached leadership positions throughout the African credit union system, CCA and its partners will be holding its first ever Forum for African female credit union leaders.
There will be 25 African women participating in the Forum. We are looking to recruit four (4) Canadian women leaders to participate alongside these incredible Africans. We have also invited the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) to recruit a woman from their networks. The role of the Canadian/WOCCU women will be to present on a specific topic, facilitate a discussion, share their experience, and to learn alongside the African women. The Forum is entirely sponsored by CDF and CCA, but is part of our partnership with WOCCU in our joint program: Global Women's Leadership Network.
The Forum itself takes place in Botswana on March 19& 20, and is adjacent to the CCA sponsored Africa Credit Union Congress. Total time away would likely be one week: March 16-23, including orientation, travel time, a visit to a credit union, the Women's Forum, and the full Credit Union Congress.
The Women's Forum objectives are:
- empower female leaders in their journey to career growth
- encourage recognition of gender in co-operative organizations
- influence HR policy and planning to promote gender integration in the workplace
- create a platform for experience sharing
QUALIFICATIONS
- we are looking for women leaders
- be in a managerial leadership position in the Canadian credit union system (CEOs, senior management) - a strong generalist, able to speak to a diverse range of management topics
- cultural sensitivity and flexibility
- Canadian citizen or landed immigrant
Canadian Co-operative Association
The Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) is a national association for co-operatives in Canada, representing more than ten million co-operative and credit union members from over 2,000 organizations. Individual co-op members are represented by CCA either directly through their co-operative, through their provincial co-op associations or credit union central, or through sectoral organizations. CCA provides leadership to promote, develop, and unite co-operatives and credit unions for the benefit of people in Canada and around the world. For more information about the mentorship program, visit our website.
Core funding for this program is provided by the Partnership Program of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and CCA's charitable funding partner, the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CDF).