News and Events

Latest news and developments relating to the international work of the College can be found here.

Newsletter

Co-operatives for Development is pleased to present our first newsletter in which you can read about our recent research, projects and publications. We hope that you enjoy reading it and welcome your comments or questions. If you would like to receive the newsletter regularly, please click here to join our mailing list.

Fair Trade and Co-operatives: A Match Made in Heaven Conference

On March 25th, the Co-operatives for Development programme hosted a lively and stimulating forum: Fair Trade and Co-operatives: A Match Made in Heaven? The event brought together over sixty professionals who are active in both the Fair Trade and co-operative movements along with academics and NGOs to debate and discuss how the two can work together to bring something unique to Fair Trade and to overcome some of the challenges they each face. Delegates had lots of ideas about how consumer-owned co-operatives can involve their members in the issues associated with fair and ethical trade and how Fair Trade buyers can better support the producer co-operatives they work with.

There were speakers from a range of Fair Trade and Co-operative organisations, including representatives from producer co-operatives in Uganda and Kenya, who provided the audience with insightful accounts of the on-the-ground challenges faced by co-operatives and the support needed. In the afternoon, delegates participated in group workshops to think of practical ways they could implement some of the ideas generated during the morning.

The highlight of the final plenary was the announcement by Gareth Thomas MP, Minister of State for International Development, of the second phase for the CoopAfrica programme, with £3 million funding from 2011, and up to £5 million in addition. Gareth Thomas MP also launched a briefing paper on DFIDs work with co-operatives.

This was the first such forum to be held in the UK, aimed to build a relationship and understanding between the two movements at a time of both co-operative revival and ever-increasing growth in Fair Trade sales. It was an exciting and timely discussion which it is hoped will stimulate some exciting future collaboration between the organisations which attended.

A publication summarising the ideas generated during the event will be available by Summer 2010. If you would like to receive a copy or be kept updated about the activities of the Co-operatives for Development team, please email us at cfd@co-op.ac.uk or click here to join our mailing list.

DFID Practice Paper

The Co-operatives for Development team has recently prepared a practice paper entitiled “Working with Co-operatives for Poverty Reduction”, which can be downloaded here.

Report: ‘Mutuals Maintain Momentum, But Challenges Mount’.

This new report, by AM Best, reflects that mutual insurance companies generally entered and emerged from the economic downturn in a strong position, but indicates that any advantage over conventional insurers may be short-lived as economies around the world continue to recover. From their perspective AM Best see that limited financial flexibility, impending implementation of Solvency II rules in Europe, growing regulatory requirements and imperatives to cut expenses will place pressure on the mutual sector, resulting in further partnerships and affiliations.

The previous report published by AM Best and looking at the mutual sector; ‘Mutuals under the Microscope as Market Share Grows’, was published in late 2009 and found that mutuals had then increased their market share during the financial turmoil. Six months on from the work undertaken to prepare that report a further review of the market shows that mutuals in the main remain well capitalised and are frequently in a stronger position than ‘non-mutual insurers’. The report is essential reading for anyone operating in the mutual and cooperative insurance sector and a copy of the new report can be found by clicking here. The previous AM Best report can also be viewed for reading or downloading at the same link.

Corporate Governance and Co-operatives

With the increasing recognition that corporate governance is a critical element for sustainable economic growth, participants met in London on February 8, 2007, to build consensus on the corporate governance priorities and technical assistance needs of co-operatives in developing countries. Linda Shaw from Co-operatives for Development was one of the participants, and she wrote the following summary: Corporate Governance Issues for Co-operatives in the Developing World. You can also view the final report here.

International Co-operative Alliance commends UN Proclamation of
International Year of Co-operatives 2012

The ICA’s new president, Dame Pauline Green, expressed today, on behalf of the entire international co-operative community, support for the
United Nations resolution on the role of co-operatives in social development, which proclaims 2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives. UN Member States approved the resolution (A/RES/64/136) on 18 December at the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The UN resolution recognises that the co-operative business model is a major factor of economic and social development, promoting the fullest possible participation in the economic and social development of people in both the developed and developing world, and that, in particular, cooperatives contribute to the eradication of poverty. The resolution also encourages all governments to create a more supportive environment for co-operative development, particularly when it comes to securing finances for capacity-building.

“The International Year of the Co-operatives is a well timed event that represents the depth of understanding of the entire co-operative movement,” said Pauline Green, ICA’s first-ever woman president. “The co-operative model is a better choice and offers the basis for a more sustainable way to do business when compared to traditional capitalist models now under scrutiny. What sets this model apart from others is that all co-operatives, whether they are small farmers or large consumer-owned entities, share the values of democracy, solidarity, equality, self-help and self responsibility, creating businesses that serve the greater good as opposed to maximising profit for the very few.”

Iain Macdonald, Director-General of ICA, expressed his support for the resolution in a statement at ICA’s recent Board meeting, indicating that the International Year of Co-operatives is “well timed to remind the world that there is more than one way of doing business and that in a global economy we all have to work together. Whether it is in tackling the economic crisis, the threat of climate change, or food security issues co-operative enterprise offers real hope of solutions to these problems, and I have no doubt that the increased profile offered by an International Year will achieve great things.”

In its 2008 Global 300 report, the ICA noted that the top 300 co-operatives alone are responsible for an aggregate turnover of 1.1 trillion USD, which represents the size of the 10th largest economy in the world (equivalent to the size of Spain alone. The International Year will provide an opportunity to further document the impact of the largest, but also of the small and medium sized co-operatives that significantly improve people’s lives around the world. With this newly approved resolution, the ICA will mobilise the global co-operative community in creating a global campaign featuring a series of events around the world and targeted messages which all co-operatives will be able to use to promote co-operative business. It will work closely with the United Nations and its agencies in addition to other co-operative stakeholder to put the co-operative model of enterprise on international and national agendas.

To view the 2010 UN resolution on co-operatives, click here.

Co-operatives and International Development News

“Co-operatives in Social Development” : This United Nations paper discusses the socio-economic impact of co-operatives and the desirability of proclaiming an International Year of Co-operatives. It is also a useful source of information for general statistics on the co-operative movement.

The Cooperative Facility for Africa has a really useful selection of working papers which can be viewed and downloaded here. Titles include:

• Reinventing the wheel? African cooperatives in a liberalized economic environment
• Enterprise future lies in cooperation – Entrepreneur Cooperatives in Africa
• African cooperatives and the financial crisis
• Social economy approaches to mainstreaming HIV/AIDS – the case of the Kasojetua Youth Group
• Fair Trade – Fair Futures: The Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union scholarship programme for Orphan and Vulnerable Children made vulnerable by AIDS
• Cooperatives in Africa: The age of reconstruction – synthesis of a survey in nine African countries
• Surviving liberalization: the cooperative movement in Kenya
• Bearing the brunt of liberalized economy: A performance review of the cooperative movement in Zambia

Co-operatives for Development News

Co-operatives for Development features in the latest Canadian Association for Studies in Co-operation Newsletter. To view the article, please click here. (Or download French version)

NOW AVAILABLE! Co-operatives for Development is pleased to announce the launch of three new publications discussing the contribution that co-operative can make to poverty reduction globally:

Making Connections: Education for Co-operaitves by Linda Shaw

This paper explores the critical role of education and training in shaping the global co-operative movement and reviews the nature of co-operative education today.

Beyond a Fair Price: The Co-operative Movement and Fair Trade by Samantha Lacey

This paper examines the rich history of the co-operative and Fair Trade movements and makes recommendations on the ways in which they can work together to provide sustainable alternatives for supply chains which can meet 21st century challenges such as climate change and food security.

Co-operatives and poverty reduction: Evidence from Sri Lanka and Tanzania. A publication by Johnston Brichall and Richard Simmons.

Written for a general audience, we hope that these publications will be read and reflected on as widely as possible, both within and beyond the co-operative movement.

These publications are available in PDF format in the Resources and Publications section of our website, however if you would like hard copies, please do not hestiate to contact us.