Cooperative at a Glance

"Cooperative enterprises provide the organizational means whereby a significant proportion of humanity is able to take into its own hands the tasks of creating productive employment, overcoming poverty and achieving social integration."
- Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General

1) What are Co-operatives?
Co-operatives are a form of business enterprises or community organization, incorporated in service to its members and users, in order to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations. Co-operatives are jointly-owned and democratically controlled by their members and users on the basis of one member, one vote.

Co-operatives use democratize, participatory, and transparent decision-making processes and organizational structures so that their members and users (i.e. owners, workers and consumers) may be directly responsible for benefiting themselves and the society in general.

2) Values and principles
Co-operatives are based on the value of self-help, mutual help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. Co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others.

Guidelines by which co-operatives put their values into practice are:

• Voluntary and Open Membership
• Democratic Member Control
• Member Economic Participation
• Autonomy and Independence
• Education, Training and Information
• Co-operation among Co-operatives
• Concern for Community

3) International Cooperative Alliance
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) is an independent worldwide international association of cooperative organizations of all types. Founded in London on 18th August 1895 by the International Cooperative Congress, the ICA has affiliates in 90 countries with 251 national and 4 international level organizations as members serving well over 800 million individual members worldwide.

The ICA collaborates with several United Nations agencies, including the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Council for Trade and Development (UNCTAD). ICA enjoys Category-I Consultative Status within the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN/ECOSOC).

4) Functions of Co-operatives
The co-operatives carry out the following functions with a view to attaining its missions and objectives.

a. Promotion and Development

• Launch publicity programs for creating an awareness of cooperative spirit among the people and for accelerating and widening the cooperative movement and cooperative activities in a healthy manner.
• Encourage people for organizing need-based cooperatives which may be self-inspired self-reliant, voluntary and autonomous.
• Conduct study and research on various aspects of cooperatives and extend assistance to them.
• Support cooperatives in developing the leading capacity for cooperative leaders.

b. Training and Education

• Organize programs like education, training, seminar, workshop and meetings to develop human resources required for the competitive management of the cooperatives and unions.
• Business Promotion and Operation
• Carry out business activities involving, natural resources, environment management, renewable energy, agricultural production and other products and export such products as per demand.
• Make arrangement for the import and supply of materials, machinery, equipment, consumer goods, construction materials etc. required for the cooperatives and unions.
• Establish agro-based industries and other industries or carry out such programs in collaboration with the interested cooperatives and unions or other institutions or provide cooperation to the cooperatives and unions for carrying out such activities.

d. Planning and Management Consultancy

• Provide support to the cooperatives and unions in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programs in order to make their management and business effective and efficient.
• Provide managerial and legal advises required for the cooperatives and unions through consultancy services.

e. Inter-Cooperative Relation

• Promote and establish relation with government, Donors, INGOs, NGOs and coordination with the concerned organizations at national and international levels.

f. Leadership and Representation

• Lead and represent the cooperative movement at national and international levels.
• Act as the chief spokesperson of the cooperative movement.

5) Why Co-operatives?

• To teach the lesson practically and theoretically in the grassroots level about the democracy, equality, ethical and the moral value of the honesty, social responsibility, caring for others as well as the cooperation among the members of the cooperatives. Members learn a vital role of the human beings towards the society and the country from the cooperative society as a best school of the management of the day-to-day life of the people.
• Cooperative intervene the private monopoly in the market where the artificial scarcity of supply, adulteration of commodities, unfair pricing, etc. is taking place. Cooperative works and services for members of the community but company works for the individual owners for their individual benefits. So, cooperatives need to be established to safeguard the interest of the grassroots level people or the voiceless people of the community. Cooperatives can serve the people of the country as a best partner of the welfare state.