A pilot training on women’s leadership in coffee cooperatives was held for Kokowagayo and Ara Cahayani Gayo cooperatives on November 6–8 2018. The training is part of a collaboration that TPSA entered into with the Fairtrade Network of Asia & Pacific Producers (Fairtrade-NAPP) to improve the governance knowledge and practices of 22 Fairtrade-certified coffee cooperatives (9 of which are women-led) in Aceh to become more gender-inclusive and, hence, more democratic.

The pilot training is a follow-up to the 5-day training of trainers (ToT) on women’s leadership in coffee cooperatives that took place October 15–19, 2018, for 18 women leaders and key staff of six women-led cooperatives in Aceh.

The main objective of the ToT was to increase the knowledge of leaders and staff of these cooperatives about how women’s leadership and membership contributes to cooperatives’ democratic governance and economic success and the training and advocacy skills to promote it.

The graduates of the ToT were expected to conduct a similar training on gender awareness and women’s leadership with women leaders and members of their respective cooperatives. The pilot training for Kokowagayo and Ara Cahayani Gayo was an opportunity for the ToT graduates from those cooperatives to apply what they learned from the ToT for the first time. The participants, all women, were composed of 20 members, 2 collectors, and 1 administrative person. Dati Fatimah, TPSA gender advisor, and Intan Wahyu Fitri, Fairtrade-NAPP’s program officer, acted as coaches during the training.