Consulting & Planning in order to promote Development – was founded in 1992.
Its mission is to educate low income social groups, particularly women who are heads
of household, through planning, implementing and monitoring cooperative and communitarian
. These groups share the vision of an integral and harmonic development. ASPLANDE has partnerships
with ABONG (Brazilian Association of Non Governmental Organizations) and with the Network ASHOKA.
Over the years, ASPLANDE has concentrated its work on helping low income
women who are responsible for their family, in order to insert themselves
in the working context. For this purpose, ASPLANDE offers these women consulting
services, which stimulate these women to create their own cooperative enterprises.
Based on this perspective, we believe the organization of Social Networks to be a
key factor in facilitating the integral organization of popular cooperatives. In our
view at ASPLANDE, Social Networks are democratic spaces which connect people and units
that share the same values and objectives. Regarding organizational aspects, the most
important characteristic of a network is an absence of centralized power and hierarchical
relations. All the “we’s” of the network represent a center of capability, power and decision.
The information flows are dynamic and transparent; they stem from various points.
The essence and beauty of the network reside in the possibility to create an environment that
allows creative talents to unfold. Thus, these women’s chances to reach their own aims and objectives are enhanced.
Women’s Cooperative Network of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro
In 1997, with the goal of optimizing the training and consulting process, ASPLANDE created the Network Rede Cooperativa de Mulheres Empreendedoras da Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro (Women’s Cooperative Network of the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro). The Network aims to contribute to the fortification of popular cooperatives formed primarily by women.
Women’s Cooperative Network addresses cooperative productive units for different enterprises, such as cooking, handcraft art, sewing, and recycling services. The majority of the groups do not receive any kind of help. Through the Network, they find a space in which they can establish relationships of mutual exchange and partnerships, can obtain information and training, and consulting and marketing. They also acquire the possibility to organize collective commercialization.
At the moment, the Network includes around 20 production and service enterprises– handcraft art, sewing, cooking and general services. Usually, these enterprises are formed by three to five participants. The Network has monthly meetings, every last Thursday of the month, in ASPLANDE’s office.
The Network applies a new model of organizing labor relations—within the Solidarity Economy—which is established by organizing Popular Cooperatives. This approach implies immediate consequences, such as rearranging the way that tasks are distributed, and reorganizing the manner in which people fulfill these tasks. This method also requires transforming management into a more participative, democratic and transparent process.
On the other hand, this application also entails changes on other levels that are achieved much more slowly and are much more difficult to perceive and, consequently, measure in a quantitative way.
These changes are linked to re-evaluating traditional values and to discovering new forms of relationships, not only at work, but also in familiar, social and political contexts.
On a rational and intellectual level, these new concepts are learned, but their comprehension is a very slow process. Such a learning process is only significant if it causes a change in attitude. This change must not only be intellectual, but also visceral in order to involve the organism as a whole.
Ever since its creation, the Network has been a space that stimulates a permanent learning process and treats issues such as:
The importance of initiating a process that applies democratic participation in managing cooperative units; overcoming conflicts in the interpersonal relationships within and outside of the working environment; always considering human diversity in all aspects; the importance of activism in social movements that constructively discuss issues such as environment, gender, human rights, fair trade and critical consumption, among others.
Every year, the Network selects a central topic with the objective of enhancing this understanding in a theoretical and practical dimension.