The ICA-AP Committee on Cooperative Research (CCR) organized the 14th ICA-AP Cooperative Research Conference on “Cooperation among Cooperatives and Mutuals” in the Asia-Pacific region at the Faculty of Business and Law, University of Newcastle, Australia from December 12 to 14, 2019. The conference was organized with the University of Newcastle (UoN) and supported by the ICA-EU Partnership on Cooperatives in Development (#Coops4Dev) and Young Scholars Initiative (YSI).

An ICYC member, Mr. Abhinash Paudel from NACCFL Nepal along with his colleague Mr. Deepakar Rupakheti participated in the conference. They made a presentation of a study undertaken by NACCFL, on the role of small farmer agriculture cooperatives in poverty reduction, a case of Makawanpur district, Nepal.

Ms. Simren Singh (ICYC Secretary) also participated in the conference. She presented the research study currently being undertaken by the ICA under the ICA-EU Partnership on Bridging the Gap Between Youth and the Cooperative Movement with Practitioner Thematic Research on Youth. It is a global study being carried out in all ICA regions and aims to (1) provide clear insights on which key challenges youth are facing and identify cooperative solutions to these challenges (2) identify the ways in which the cooperative movement can better support and engage with young people, and vice versa, and (3) provide a number of key conclusions and recommendations that can feed into global policy, advocacy, and other operational activities.

The conference also had an Early Career Researchers’ and Young Scholars’ Workshop that was conducted on December 12 to provide the young participants an opportunity to be mentored by senior academicians with rich experience in the area of cooperatives. This was the first time that an ICA-AP CCR conference had held such a workshop. Prof. Akira Kurimoto, Institute for Solidarity-based Society, Hosei University, Tokyo and Chair of the ICA-AP CCR and Prof. Morris Altman, Co-chair of the local organizing committee welcomed the 24 scholars from ten countries. The scholars received feedback on their draft papers by senior academicians, who included Prof. Morris Altman (Dundee University, School of Business), Prof. Olivera Marjanovic  (University of Technology Sydney), Professor Branka Krivokapic-Skoko (Charles Sturt University), Dr. Paul Thambar (Monash University Melbourne) and Prof. Tony Webster (Northumbria University United Kingdom). The break-out sessions on ‘How to get cooperative research published?” and “Developing a network for emerging cooperative scholars” allowed time for discussions which were facilitated by Ms. Emi Do, PhD candidate at the Tokyo University and YSI Coordinator.

The energy of young scholars during the workshop was positive as they received good advice and tips on how to get published in reputable academic journals (and what not to do). The group also discussed how to use social media and digital platforms to continue to network and support each other through PhD’s and early career challenges.

The Dr. Mauritz Bonow Young Researcher Award 2019 (a joint initiative of the ICA-AP and the ICA Domus Trust) was awarded to Ms. Heira Hardiyanti, Researcher, Institute for Indonesian Cooperatives Development studies (LSP21), for her paper on “Worker Cooperative in Indonesia, The Invisible Cooperative.”  The second prize was awarded to Ms. Jihyun Jeong, Researcher, Sungkonghoe University, Seoul for her paper on “How do local actors institutionalize global movement? The case study of Fair Trade in Korea.”