Steering Group

The project benefits from its very experienced and distinguished Steering Committee, consisting of members from African countries as well as from agencies that have worked in co-operative development for many years. These are:

dr-johnston-birchall Dr. Johnston Birchall is Professor of Social Policy at Stirling University in Scotland. He is an international authority on membership-based organisations such as co-ops, mutuals and public service user groups. His ESRC-funded research programme has included a theoretical model of what motivates people to participate, a ‘mutualist’ approach to public service delivery, and (currently) a study of co-operatives and poverty reduction in developing countries. His book titles include: Co-operatives and the Millennium Development Goals, (ILO, 2004); Decentralising Public Service Management (with C Pollitt, Macmillan, 1998); The International Co-operative Movement, (Manchester University Press, 1997) ; Co-op: the People’s Business (Manchester University Press, 1994); and The New Mutualism in Public Policy, (edited, Routledge, 2001) . He is also writing a new book called Membership-based businesses: mutuals and co-operatives in an age of globalisation, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in May 2009.
 
dr-hagen-henry Sr.Hagen Henry is a German magistrate by training. In addition he received a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies in development law from the University of Paris (V) and a Licentiate degree from the University of Helsinki. He did postgraduate work at the Institute for Development Studies of the University of Geneva. He is Dr.iur. and Adjunct Professor of comparative law of the University of Helsinki.

He worked at the Universities of Saarbrücken, Geneva and Helsinki for 6 years and for 8 years as legal advisor to the German Federal Minister of Economy. Before joining the ILO as COOP Team leader in 2007 he worked for 14 years as a consultant in cooperative policy and legislation in a great number of countries and for a great number of governmental as well as non-governmental organizations.
 
dr-suleman-chambo Dr. Suleman Chambo is Principal and Associate Professor of Economics and Organizational Management of the Moshi University College of Co-operative and Business Studies in Tanzania. Dr. Chambo holds BA and MA degrees in Economics from the University of Dar-Es–Salaam, Tanzania. He also has a Masters degree in Environmental Studies with emphasis in Organisational Management and Development from York University, Toronto, Canada. Dr. Chambo is a board member of several people based and rural development organisations in Tanzania, such as the Traditional Irrigation and Environmental Development Organization, Small Farmers Network of Tanzania, Financial Services and Enterprise Development Association and Research on Poverty Alleviation (NGO). Recently, he has been appointed member of the Steering Committee of the COOP-AFRICA Programme, seeking to revitalize co-operative enterprise in Africa.
 
dr-douglas-bourn Dr Douglas Bourn is the Director of the Development Education Research Centre, Institute of Education, University of London, and the former Director of the Development Education Association. He is the author of numerous articles and books on development education, global citizenship and sustainable development education and is the editor of the International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning. Dr. Bourn is the Chair of the UNESCO UK Committee on the Decade on Education for Sustainable Development and is also a member of the Board of Governors at the Co-operative College. He has a PhD on the Development of Labour Party Ideas on Education.
 
Lou New June 09 small Dr Lou Hammond Ketilson Director, Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, Saskatchewan, Canada and Chair of the International Co-operative Alliance Research Committee.
 
Dr Vishwas Satgar Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Co-operatives, Johannesburg.
 
Caroline Gijselinckx 0508 Dr. Caroline Gijselinckx (°1972) is doctor in the Social Sciences (Catholic University of Leuven, 2006). Her PhD-thesis was on the implications of the Critical Realist framework for sociological theory and analysis. Before starting her PhD project, she was a researcher at the University of Antwerp, where she analysed economic and cultural deprivation. Since 2005 she is research manager at the Higher Institute of Labour Studies (Catholic University of Leuven) where she conducts research in the fields of civil society and social economy. A major research topic of her team is co-operative entrepreneurship, conducted within the framework of the Cera Centre for Co-operative Entrepreneurship, a long term research project, financed by the Belgian co-operative holding Cera. More information on this project and the related publications can be found at www.cooperatiefondernemen.be<http://www.cooperatiefondernemen.be> (english pages available). Research into development cooperation, evaluation of development cooperation programmes by governments and NGO’s, and the role of co-operatives and other third sector actors, is another major activity of her team.