The IRU – International Raiffeisen Union participated in a high-level online side event held in the framework of the 64th Session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development (CSocD64) on 5 February 2026.
The hybrid meeting was hosted by the Working Women’s Forum and the Indian Cooperative Network for Women (WWF / ICNW) from its headquarters in Chennai, India, and connected participants joining both in person and online from more than 25 countries. Over 300 grassroots women workers from the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana followed the discussions.
The event, entitled “Strengthening grassroots cooperative institutions as catalysts for social justice, economic resilience and gender equality”, brought together international cooperative and development leaders to discuss how locally rooted, women-led cooperatives can contribute to inclusive growth, social justice and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaking during the meeting, IRU Secretary General Andreas Kappes highlighted the importance of democratic and inclusive cooperative models and underlined the central role of women in strengthening the cooperative movement worldwide.
“Democratic cooperatives, with gender equality at their core, are essential for social justice and economic resilience,”
said Andreas Kappes, Secretary General of the International Raiffeisen Union, stressing the need for enabling legal and policy frameworks, better access to finance and sustained investment in education and training to achieve lasting impact.
Dr. Nandini Azad during the event.
In his intervention, Andreas Kappes also warmly acknowledged the strong contribution of Dr. Nandini Azad, President of WWF-ICNW, and praised her long-standing leadership in advancing the voice of grassroots women within the international cooperative community. He highlighted the importance of continued collaboration with organisations such as WWF-ICNW to ensure that the perspectives and realities of women working in the informal economy are reflected in global cooperative and development debates.
The online side event, held in parallel to the UN CSocD64 session in New York, showcased concrete examples of how women-led cooperatives contribute to inclusive growth, community resilience and gender equality, and demonstrated how locally rooted cooperative institutions can shape global policy discussions.
What an extraction from the Indian news here:
