How Do Women’s Cooperatives Combat Covid-19?

We talked with the Aegean Region Coordinator of the Foundation For The Support Of Women's Work (KEDV) Ayşe Temiztaş about the works of women's cooperatives, the effects of the canceled festivals and closed booths due to the coronavirus epidemic and about the expectations of the cooperatives during this period.

Can you tell us about KEDV?

KEDV is a non-governmental organization working in the public interest which was founded in 1986 to support the improvement of the lives of women with low-incomes and to strengthen their leaderships among local development. It has a vision of a participatory and democratic society without inequalities and poverty.

The poor women are usually described as “victims”, as “weak” and “in need of help”. In contrast, KEDV believes in the strengths of poor women derived from their struggles with life, their expertise gained from life experiences, and their creativity in fighting poverty.

For this reason, the subject of women transforming their lives under their own leadership has always been one of the main interests of KEDV. KEDV also supports the cooperatives of women to jointly initiate among social and economic areas in order to create examples of women-centered local development and strengthen their leadership in society.

KEDV, which has initiated the cooperative movement for women together with the women groups it worked with in 2002, supports the spreading of women’s cooperatives and improving their institutional capacities in various cities of Turkey, and conducts the secretariat of the SIMURG Women’s Cooperatives Union which brings nearly 150 women’s cooperatives from all over Turkey together.

You’ve mentioned that KEDV provides support for spreading women’s cooperatives and improving their institutional capacities. What are these support activities?

Trainings on establishing and operating cooperatives on activities such as technical support and consultancy, interrelation of women cooperatives and transfer of experience, provincial coordination and regional meetings, national meetings, exchange meetings, monitoring visits, program support, capacity building training programs support the economic initiatives of cooperatives of women to establish sustainable businesses and develop products to facilitate their active participation in the economy. The improvement and marketing of the products are supported by the economic enterprise of KEDV which is NAHIL that sells cooperatives’ products, but İzmir Kemeraltı branch has been closed for some time under the epidemic measures.

They are trying to provide common public spaces for women and children, and there are programs developed for this such as women’s and children’s centers and early childhood education services.

Again, women-centered disaster and migration programs are being developed. As with other programs, it tries to give priority to the needs of women and children.

Funding and collaboration development processes are supported, and collaboration with stakeholders from public institutions to local governments, from the private sector to solidarity networks is facilitated.

Advocacy work is done, communication is provided with relevant ministries and reports are prepared.

We know that monthly coordination meetings with the cooperatives in Izmir have been going on for 5 years, which organizations are there, what things are evaluated?

The provincial coordination facilitated by KEDV and SİMURG, is attended by 29 women’s cooperatives, 2 women’s cooperative initiatives and representatives of 3 agricultural development cooperatives all of which are women that have been organized in İzmir. Women’s cooperatives need solidarity and cooperation in many areas. İzmir provincial coordination also functions as a platform for collaboration and solidarity for Izmir cooperatives. The purpose of the coordination is to create an egalitarian, solidarist, participant and interoperable structure for women’s social, economic and cultural empowerment.

We have determined the purpose of the coordination and the solidarity principles that keep the cooperatives together, with the participating cooperatives. We’ve updated our principles with every new cooperative that joined us. Most of the cooperatives involved in the coordination are cooperatives that have been started in the last 3-4 years. Therefore, sharing knowledge and experience is one of the most important needs. Depending on the need, we sometimes get support from representatives of the institution and sometimes from experts. We enable them to attend to coordination meetings and share.

Just like in our economic initiatives, the linking of the experts and the cooperatives for capacity strengthening and sharing of knowledge and experience is carried out with the support of the foundation. We are trying to develop new business ideas and benefit from good examples.

We are looking for ways to make the most of opportunities, from accessing financial resources to creating market areas and opportunities.

We also try to develop common solutions and influence decision mechanisms by acting together for our common needs and priorities. We are developing collaborations with local governments, especially with Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. We have received logistics support from Izmir Metropolitan Municipality and local administrations from the beginning in the organization of the coordination meetings.

Cooperation and solidarity among women’s cooperatives in İzmir makes the role of women cooperatives and women among local development more visible.

What effects do coordination meetings have on participants?

First of all, it provides motivation to cooperatives. Cooperatives see that they are not alone and learn from each other, they strengthen each other. This is very important for cooperatives because there are no policies and legal regulations to open the way for women’s cooperatives. There are serious problems arising from the legislation. It is not possible to access financial resources. The demands do not match. Therefore, we need to be together and strengthen the culture of solidarity.

On the other hand, coordination meetings enable us to look critically at our cooperative work among production and service. Products are exchanged between cooperatives. Cooperatives with sales points also market the products of sister cooperatives here.

Cooperation and solidarity among women’s cooperatives in İzmir makes the role of women cooperatives and women among local development more visible.

How did the pandemic process affect the cooperatives? What were the processes and coping methods of women cooperatives as they are affected by pandemics?

Covid-19 has affected the whole world without exceptions such as rich, poor, woman or man. However, as in all disasters and wars, the impact it has on women and the poor is more corrosive. It was not possible for the women’s cooperatives where women in need came together and try to provide economic and social benefits to themselves and to their environment with scarce resources created by them not to be affected by the process and so they were.

After the pandemic, the activities of the cooperatives have come to a halt, albeit temporarily. These were mandatory measures for public health as well as women. For example, Menemen cooperative had to close the preschool education center as in other cooperatives that provide care services in other cities.

Cooperatives such as Karşıyaka, Ödemiş, Bornova, Avukma and Gaziemir that produce handicrafts, weavings, souvenirs and textile products and come together in the workshops, had to close down their workshops. Partners of some cooperatives began to continue their individual production at home. For example, some of the partners of the Bergama cooperative continue their net production at home.

Cooperatives such as Çeşme, Urla, Balçova, Narlıdere, Pagos which produce food or run cafes and restaurants had to stop their production and services.

Cooperatives engaged in agricultural production have taken responsibility to bring the vegetable seedlings they planted recently into the soil, perhaps by putting themselves at risk. They work partially in the fields, in the vineyards or in the gardens by being attentive to physical distance.

They are trying to carry out their planting activities which they have to, with very few female partners, by protecting their partners who are over 65 years old and who have chronic diseases. For example, Kavacık, Yelki, Aliağa, Mordoğan, Urla, Hıdırlık cooperatives do this.

As with the rest of the world, the negative economic effects of the epidemic have left women, small businesses, small producers and women’s cooperatives, which are the organization of women with low income like us in a hard situation.

As you know, the government has announced an economic support package. Unfortunately, this package is far from meeting the needs of women’s cooperatives. It is impossible for women cooperatives to cover their expenses such as rent, electricity, water and natural gas in these conditions where all work have stopped and there is no income. In addition to this, there are cooperatives with equipment installments, there are taxes that are due at the time of payment, these have been delayed for three months, but they will be paid exponentially in the following months and everything will be more difficult for the cooperatives.

We try to overcome the negative and destructive effects of this process with solidarity by using different communication tools. The first thing we did was to publish a call as the Association of SİMURG Women’s Cooperatives with the support of KEDV, which explains how the pandemic process affects women’s cooperatives and that includes the support we expect from the public. All of the Izmir women’s cooperatives and 115 cooperatives in total signed our call for public support and the call was sent to the relevant ministries.

We have published a document that includes women’s co-operatives getting the right information about the Covid-19 outbreak, changing their habits, and protecting their own health and public health. You know, children are restricted from going out. We tried to reach out to the mothers and support them with the document “We are at home with children” on how to support children during the epidemic process.

We have published another document including the rules that food producing cooperatives must follow today and in the upcoming period. We started our meetings with cooperatives, especially the Izmir coordination meeting, by using digital communication tools. Women who have never used these tools until today can now hold their meetings through these channels. We even started our distance education programs.

Women’s cooperatives tried to organize solidarity both among their own stakeholders and in the neighborhoods. Cooperatives such as Pagos, Yelki, and Urla used every means to meet the urgent and essential needs of those in need such as patients and the elderly. Sometimes they directly helped, and sometimes they provided the aid of institutions such as İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and District Governorate to these people.

Many cooperatives and partners such as Çiğli, Bornova and Çeşme started to knit masks day and night. Thanks to Urla cooperative, they did not let the artichoke grown by the producer to remain in the field by launching a very common campaign on social media. They processed the artichoke bought from the producer and its partners and brought it together with the consumer. Few cooperative partner women continue to work and process artichokes with trying to take on responsibility. Some of the partners who cannot leave their houses due to the restrictions take orders on the phone. Again those who could not leave the house also supported their sisters by preparing meals for them who processed, packaged and shipped artichokes.

Meanwhile, KEDV and SIMURG are trying to strengthen solidarity and communication networks between cooperatives to combat the Covid-19 outbreak and reduce the risks.

The curfew also affected members of the cooperative who are over the age 65. What effects did this have on cooperative work?

Some of our partners continue to produce at home during curfews and prepare for the coming days. They attend online meetings, and act with solidarity together with very few partners working from home. They listen to the problems of each other using digital tools and trying to stay strong. As you already know, the epidemic process increased the burden of women who stayed home. Routine work has started to take even more time due to the essential measures to be taken in this process.

Booths were set up in Pagos and Kültürpark and the products of many women’s cooperatives were offered for sale here. How did the booths not being set up due to the epidemic affected the cooperatives?

Pagos and Kültürpark market areas organized by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality were important centers for directing the products of cooperatives to the public.

Apart from a few cooperatives, all women’s cooperatives had made sales in those markets from the beginning. As I mentioned before, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality carried the cooperative products one by one to the market areas and this service significantly facilitated the participation of the cooperatives in the market.

Producer women and cooperatives brought natural, fresh, healthy and most importantly reliable food to consumers in the market places on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The fact that cooperatives have sales areas and market places naturally encouraged production.

Market places are closed due to the epidemic. However, cooperatives do not have the opportunity to produce processed food other than agricultural products in this process. And this is a significant loss for cooperatives.

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mr. Tunç Soyer opened the People’s Grocery to support the cooperatives and ensure that the people reach cheap and reliable food. Cooperatives which have a limited number of stocked products, continue to supply products here.

Lastly, what would you like to say?

Everyone from various environments or segments are looking for an answer to the question of what will happen after the pandemic, and we know that nothing will be as it was yesterday.

This crisis once again showed us the importance of solidarity and local organizations and businesses which are the most important elements of it. After the pandemic, these structures seem to play a critical role in the cooperative restructuring process.

One of the most important tools of the solidarity economy that are the cooperatives, are organizations that can meet the needs in terms of increasing the quality of life together with employment, as well as being voluntary collaboration of women with common goals. They are not public institutions, but they do public works. The roles of social cooperatives such as women’s cooperatives in the provision of services where the public and private sector cannot produce solutions alone or are insufficient, and in supporting the participation of poor, low-income women in the workforce are accepted by everyone.

Women produce goods and services together. They do not pay dividends and provide their partners with innovative services and production areas. There are co-production, fair distribution, sharing, and most importantly, a democratic participatory management approach among cooperatives.

Today, the number of the partners of women cooperatives in Izmir is over 1500. Outside the partners, the women they benefit from and interact with are many times more than this number. In order for these cooperatives to survive, we have to organize today and plan tomorrow.

In order for the new cooperatives to survive and continue to provide public benefits, public support needs to be urgently provided. Therefore, interest-free, 1-year non-refundable loans and financing support to ensure that women’s cooperatives are exempted from SSI premiums from April taxes, May and June, and that their economic enterprises are maintained from where they left off. We demand that the insurance and paid permits of the teachers and other staff of the cooperatives that operate nurseries, kindergartens but have to close due to the epidemic are covered by the public.

Therefore we demand that women’s cooperatives to be exempt from mandatory taxes and SSI premiums for April, May and June; meeting of their three-month mandatory expenses such as rent, electricity, water and natural gas; financial support with interest-free, 1-year non-refundable loans to ensure that their economic initiatives continue where they will be left off and that the insurance and paid leave of the teachers and other staff of the cooperatives that operate nurseries, kindergartens and had to close down due to the epidemic to be covered by the public.