In his article “Empowerment and Governance Through Information and Communication Technologies, Women’s Perspective”, Vikas Nath asserts that “… knowledge is one resource that liberates people from poverty and is also empowering, hence, women stand to benefit tremendously from the inroads laid by ICT in the domain of knowledge networking as ICT can digitally link each and every woman in the world in a network which opens up endless possibilities for information exchange thus overcoming the constraints of seclusion, mobilizing resources and support, reaching out to new markets and opening up avenues for life-long learning.”

Even as women constantly seek development and empowerment, AWCF-related co-operatives are committed to helping enterprising rural women develop themselves and actively participate in socio-economic activities with decision-making powers. By establishing a knowledge network, this new form of ICT will play a major role in co-operative development and the promotion of gender equity and equality. Through the it@coops project, the idea of creating a co-operative virtual network in Southeast Asia will be spearheaded by the three AWCF members-organizations: CULT in Thailand, FORMASI in Indonesia and NATCCO in the Philippines in collaboration with development organizations that already use ICT in their organizations or businesses. As national networks are developed, a virtual co-op network will take shape at the regional level to help systematize activities within co-ops especially the development of operational procedures, facilitating information exchange and concerted market-effort to improve competitiveness. The establishment of at least one national website will be useful and handy in the development of the regional website or the web portal for co-op e-learning, e-business and e-consulting.