Cooperatives urged to drive justice and equality for all women and girls
BRUSSELS, March 17, 2026 — Cooperatives are founded on values that explicitly promote equality for all, including women, but more work remains to be done.
To mark International Women’s Day 2026, Xiomara Núñez de Céspedes, President of the International Cooperative Alliance [ICA] Gender Equality Committee, shared a video message reaffirming the cooperative movement’s commitment “to work towards fairer, more inclusive and more equitable systems for all women and girls”.
She said: “Around the world, millions of women continue to face structural barriers such as discriminatory laws, unequal access to land and credit, and a lack of representation in decision-making.
“Across the international cooperative movement, we see every day how cooperatives open new pathways. When women organise in cooperatives, they strengthen their voice, share resources, and build more democratic and inclusive spaces.”
On March 9, Núñez de Céspedes participated in the opening of the Commission on the Status of Women [CSW70], the United Nations’ largest annual gathering focused on women’s rights and gender equality.
The theme of this year’s event is ‘access to justice for women and girls’, which, she says, “is deeply connected to the daily realities of women in cooperatives across sectors and regions”.
In a statement for CSW70, she said: “Access to justice is not only a matter of courts and formal legal systems. It is also about ensuring that women can effectively claim their economic, social and collective rights. Structural barriers, including discriminatory laws, unequal access to land and productive resources, limited financial inclusion, and underrepresentation in decision-making, continue to prevent women from fully exercising those rights.
“Cooperatives, as people-centred and democratically governed enterprises, provide practical pathways to overcome these barriers. By pooling resources, strengthening collective voice, and embedding equality in governance structures, cooperatives contribute to women’s economic empowerment and to more inclusive local justice systems.”
Núñez de Céspedes added that the International Year of the Woman Farmer in 2026 should serve as a catalyst for structural change.
“Women farmers are central to food security and sustainable development, yet often face systemic discrimination in access to land, credit, markets and legal protection. Agricultural cooperatives can play a transformative role in advancing their rights and strengthening their access to justice,” she said.
She called on Member States to review and reform discriminatory laws and practices that limit women’s equal participation in economic life, recognise and integrate cooperatives into national gender equality and access-to-justice frameworks, and ensure that national justice and development policies address the specific barriers faced by rural and grassroots women, including women farmers.
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