By Marc Noel, co-operative development manager at Cooperatives Europe
In March 2016, representatives from the International Co-operative Alliance and the European Commission signed a framework partnership agreement for a global development programme to benefit and advance the co-operative sector worldwide (Download the Civil Society Partnership press release). This partnership will strengthen the capacity of the International Co-operative Alliance to represent and promote the co-operative model within the international development scene.
The partnership agreement is the fruit of extensive and sustained relations by Cooperatives Europe and the Alliance regions within the consultative EU Policy Forum on Development. Building on the success of the 2012 EU Communication ‘Europe’s engagement with Civil Society in external relations’, this signing is a next step and a confirmation of co-operatives as important development actors.
The partnership, titled “Co-operatives in development – people-centered businesses in action”, is to run until 31 August 2020. The development partnership is to facilitate, among others, an enabling environment for co-operatives, at global, regional and national levels. As a poor enabling environment is a major constraint to co-operative enterprises in many countries, the program will strengthen the Alliance and its members’ technical, institutional and political capacity to intervene and engage in political dialogue, to create awareness and knowledge about co-operatives as social and economic actors.
Further, the development partnership aims to create synergies, by improving information flow between the Alliance’s offices and the global co-operative community. Knowledge building via in particular an advanced mapping of the co-operative actors and comparative knowledge on legal frameworks in the regions are key goals.
Finally, the program aims to improve the visibility of the co-operative model, the Alliance and its members. Better visibility and understanding of co-operatives will allow co-ops to make better use of economic and social development opportunities.
