Speakers
Sylvia Paraguya
Chief Executive Officer
National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO)
Website: www.natcco.coopConference theme:
ROUND TABLE 4: Practitioner reactions – Surprising or astonishing study results
"I am participating in the International Summit of Cooperatives because…"
“I wanted to learn about the trends and new thinking on cooperatives.”
Interview
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“… recognizing that women comprise maybe more than half of the members of cooperatives”
Sylvia Okinlay-Paraguya has been the Chief Executive Officer of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO), Philippines, since 2009. Her 24 years of professional work experience include 3 years as a management trainee in the biggest steel plant in the Philippines and 21 years in development... >>
Biography
Sylvia Okinlay-Paraguya has been the Chief Executive Officer of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO), Philippines, since August of 2009. NATCCO is a federation composed of 500 cooperatives, 1,018 offices and 1.8 million individual members in 75 provinces (out of a total of 80 provinces) in the country. 77% of NATCCO members are engaged in savings and credit activities.
Her 24 years of professional work include 3 years as a management trainee in the biggest steel plant in the Philippines and 21 years in development work, mostly with the cooperative movement. Prior to her appointment at NATCCO, she was the Chief Executive Officer of MASS-SPECC Cooperative Development Center, the second largest federation in the Philippines. MASS-SPECC is also a member of NATCCO.
In addition to being a cooperator, she is actively involved with non-government organizations. She has served as the Chairperson of the Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks, the biggest network of non-government organizations and peoples organizations in Mindanao, Philippines, and Balay Mindanaw Foundation, an NGO which aims to help build empowered, sustainable and resilient communities and helps build peace. Her active participation in the civil society sector and her being a member of the indigenous peoples led to her appointment as a member of the government panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from 2004 to 2008.
She represents NATCCO in the Coalition of Development NGOs, the largest group of NGO networks in the country, Foundation for a Sustainable Society Inc., an NGO that promotes eco-enterprises and the triple bottom line and Philippine Cooperative Centers, the apex of cooperatives in the Philippines.
A Chemical Engineer, she is a graduate of the Master of Business Management at the Asian Institute of Management, Makati City.
About the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO)
NATCCO was founded in 1977 as an education and training centre owned by the major regional federations in the country. In 2004, it implemented a two-tier structure with services and businesses to support the initiatives of its primary cooperative members, the majority of which are engaged in savings and credit activities.
Its services include treasury and credit, education, training and consultancy, cash management systems including remittance services, information technology and microfinance packages. NATCCO is a member of Megalink, 1 of the ATM networks in the country and thus NATCCO installs ATMs and POS with its member cooperatives. It is ISO certified in 3 categories, including quality, environment and health and safety.
Today, NATCCO is the largest federation of cooperatives in the Philippines in terms of geographic outreach, membership, financial capacity and services provided.
NATCCO is one of the founding members of Proxfin, an international network for dialogue and study that has a membership of 25 community finance institutions and Développement international Desjardins.
<< Back to speakers
