Leaders from 8 Fairtrade-certified women-led cooperatives have, for some time, felt the need to create a forum wherein they could discuss common issues as women in cooperatives and learn from each other. This need was raised again during the training on gender-responsive governance and women’s leadership in coffee cooperatives held October 15–19, 2018. To respond to this need, Fairtrade-NAPP, with the support of TPSA, facilitated a Women in Cooperatives forum on November 29, 2018, in Takengon, Aceh. The forum was attended by 20 women leaders and key staff from the 8 cooperatives, who became the first members of the forum., Dati Fatimah, TPSA’s gender advisor, and Intan Wahyu Fitri, Fairtrade-NAPP’s programme officer, facilitated the meeting.

The key decisions made during that meeting were:

• the election of three coordinators who are responsible for leading the forum in its activities;
• agreement to lobby for their respective cooperatives to finance the activities of the forum using the Fairtrade premium fund;
• hold another meeting in January 2019.