Reviving cooperative movement to overcome global economic stresses
View(s):By Quintus Perera
The International Labour Organization (ILO), concerned about the crippling world economy, is vigorously helping to revive the ages-old cooperative movement as a sustainable economic need.
Last year – 2012 – was declared as the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC).
Simel Esim
In Sri Lanka, the ILO has a programme to promote the cooperative movement in the Northern Province through an on-going project titled “Local Empowerment through Economic Development (LEED)” under which a 2-day planning workshop for the Northern Cooperative Movement was recently held.
Ms Simel Esim, Chief of Cooperatives, ILO, who guided the programme with her expert knowledge, told the Business Times (BT) on the sidelines of the workshop at a hotel in Jaffna, that the IYC generated a lot of energy and hope for this movement.
She said that ILO promotes the cooperative business model to create and maintain sustainable enterprises. It recognizes that cooperatives not only create and maintain employment and thus provide income, but also paves the way for broader social and economic advancement.
Cooperatives serve their members and as such balance the need for profitability with the needs of their members who own and control their enterprises.
The French Minister of Social Economy, she said, has announced new legislation aiming to sustain cooperative development and double the number of worker cooperatives and has generated a discussion on workers’ buying out bankrupt enterprises as a viable model.
The President of Uruguay joined a long line of leaders who mooted cooperative movements in their countries and indicated that cooperatives tend to face crises better, Ms Esim told the BT.
She said that a cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. These cooperatives can represent other community needs and they can look into social, human and environmental aspects.
Ms Esim pointed out that when enterprises go bankrupt everybody looks for alternative business forms – socially responsible business and business for the livelihood of people. She said that in forming cooperatives different trades can come together like farmers, fishermen, etc.
Cooperatives formed by producers, consumers, workers and businesses worldwide have demonstrated their enormous potential in creating employment opportunities, empowering people, providing social protection and alleviating poverty, Ms Esim pointed out. She said, “They have a proven track record of advancing sustainability and social justice.”
However, she stressed that the development of cooperatives is hampered by a lack of knowledge and understanding of the cooperative business model.
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