NEWS

United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples

On 13 September 2007 the United Nations adopted a Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples - approved by 143 Governments, 11 Governments abstained and the Australian, Canadaian, New Zealand and the USA Governments voted against the Declaration.

The Declaration is non-binding and has been adopted after two decades of debate. The United Nations has estimated that there are 370 million indigenous people throughout the world.

The United Nations news release on the Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23794&Cr=indigenous&Cr1=
The United Nations text of the Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html

Joint Rural Finance Thematic Workshop for East and Southern Africa, 25th - 27th July 2007, Kampala, Uganda

The International Fund For Agricutural Development (IFAD),  the Swedish Co-operative Centre–Vi Regional Office for Eastern Africa,  and the International Co-operative Alliance Regional Office for Africa, in conjunction with the Government of Uganda and other local partners have organised a joint sub-regional Rural Finance Thematic Workshop in Uganda.

Expansion of Global 300 Project
The Global 300 Project is being expanded to include the Developing 300 and National 100 lists. The Developing 300 will rank co-operatives in developing economies. The National 100 will identify the top 100 co-operatives in each country.

First Co-operative Forum for Enhancing the Co-operative Work, 12 - 13 June, 2007, Dubai, UAE. News release about the forum attended by over 100 delegates from Gulf Co-operation Council countries. A four point action plan was proposed at the end of the forum.

Private Sector (including co-operative) Development and poverty reduction

This was examined by the UK House of Commons International Development Committee. The subsequent report, Fourth Report: Private Sector Development (July 2006) concluded that the private sector did have a role in poverty reduction - and that this included co-operatives.

Private Sector Development

Excerpts from the report follow.

"Private sector development emphasises the central importance of economic growth to reducing poverty. The links between the private sector and poverty reduction are manifold; PSD aims to maximise the benefits of these connections for poor people to achieve job creation, markets that work for poor people and the growth of the local private sector in developing countries."

"The typical private sector entity is not a large multinational company, but a rural small-holding, a market stall or co-operative factory. 90% of people from sub-Saharan Africa are in the private sector: the Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, recently stated, "Poor people are the private sector".

"As democratic member organisations, co-operatives — when performing efficiently — can exemplify a private sector model that provides many benefits for poor people. Co-operatives can be any kind of business and they operate in most sectors of economic activity. Globally the co-operative movement provides employment for more people than multinationals, supplying over 100 million jobs. As with most private sector actors, co-operatives do not tend to start from a poverty reduction viewpoint, but contribute to this goal by providing economic opportunities to marginal economic actors (producers, workers or consumers).However, as Stirling Smith of the Co-operative College said, co-operatives "are part of the private sector but a little bit different", with an ability "to provide a link between the formal part of the economy and the informal sector", to enable "collective entrepreneurship" and to "provide access to markets that the individual, small farmer could not possibly achieve."

"The co-operative movement has been a leading player in the fair trade movement. Co-operatives are the largest retailers of fairly traded products globally. Albert Tucker, a leading fair trade consultant, was positive in regard to the role of co-operatives in improving trade practices: "In the fair trade movement we have found co-operatives quite valuable. I know there are mixed experiences of the success of co-ops, but we have found that poor-people-led co-operatives, when they are successful, have invested much more widely in the communities they are working in and in infrastructure than traditional shareholder-led private-sector interventions."

"Growth is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for poverty reduction: the pace and pattern of growth both affect its ability to be pro-poor. Meanwhile, a series of factors affect the private sector's ability to deliver 'the right kind of growth': the climate in which investment takes place is foremost amongst these factors. The regulatory environment; the presence of supporting infrastructure; rights to property and land; governance; corruption; access to financial, physical and human capital — all of these factors will nurture or inhibit investment climates."

"Creating the right conditions for growth and job creation is a primary function of governments. However, donors can assist the ability of both governments and the private sector to generate and sustain growth. As well as supporting governments in improving their investment climates, donors can address the systemic factors — such as poor employment opportunities and conditions, a lack of access to assets such as finance, health and education and dysfunctional market conditions — that prevent poor people's participation in markets. Certain country circumstances, such as conflict, fragility and access to natural resources, will put such constraints in even sharper focus, and will require specific donor interventions. "

"Donors have a key role in mobilising the resources of the private sector — primarily finance, human capital and regional and international networks — and stimulating the investment of these resources in ways that contribute to poverty reduction. In particular, donors can act as investment pioneers, providing initial funding for investments perceived as too risky by the private sector and demonstrating the investments' potential. Donors and governments can also help markets reach even the very poorest, by sustaining markets that are not profitable for the private sector through microfinance."

"Whilst the primary function of the private sector is clearly to drive growth, there is an increasingly wide acceptance that the manner in which private sector entities trade, invest, employ staff and address their social and environmental impacts has a profound impact on poverty reduction. Donors can maximise these pro-poor responses in a number of ways, for instance, through direct engagement with the private sector through public private partnerships and support for changes to trading structures and practices. "

Co-operatives & Chains research workshop in Ethiopia

As reported in Digest No 52, the ICA last year entered into a research collaboration with Agriterra (The Netherlands), and the Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN) on Co-operatives and Chains (Linking Smallholder Organisation to Agricultural Markets). The pre-proposal has since then been selected by the Dutch Science Council for further elaboration. A preparatory workshop was recently held in Ethiopia (15-16 January) to further elaborate the proposal.

ICA’s Director of development, Jan-Eirik Imbsen, represented the ICA at the event which was scheduled as an expert meeting to define the research strategy, to review the research methodology and approach, and to identify suitable case studies. ICA's contribution - together with Agriterra - is of key importance in identifying prospective case studies that demonstrate new capacities for dealing with market demands.

Co-operative organisations may choose different pathways to respond to the increasing demands as a result of the vertical supply chain integration. Some of the questions that the research will address are;
How do co-operatives adapt to changing market & institutional environment (what are the changes in governance, in member heterogeneity, in member-co-operative relationship, in equity requirements, etc.)? How does commodity and market structure specificity influence the supply chain integration and governance, and how does the integration and governance of the supply chain influence the incentives for collective action? How do different organisational forms emerge to respond to these incentives? What is the impact of alternative co-operative organizational forms on smallholder welfare and poverty, and on the performance of the whole co-operative sector?

The five year research programme which will be carried out in Africa, Asia and Latin America will aim at improving the role of economic farmers’ organizations in development by identifying suitable policy instruments and feasible strategies for strengthening co-operative performance. It will also produce an instrument for assessing performance and strength of agricultural co-operative societies that can be used by institutions involved in rural development.

For further information, please contact
Prof. dr. Ruerd Ruben
Chair Development Studies &
Director Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN) Radboud University Nijmegen P.O. Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen
E-mail: R.Ruben@maw.ru.nl and Jan-Eirik Imbsen imbsen@ica.coop

Collaboration with Agriterra and CIDIN

The ICA has recently entered into a research collaboration with Agriterra (The Netherlands), and the Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN). A research proposal on Co-operatives and Chains has been submitted to the Dutch funding institution WOTRO. The four year research programme will be carried out in Sub-Sahara Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The research will inter alia result in the identification of suitable policy instruments and feasible strategies for strengthening co-operative performance. One outcome will be an instrument for assessing performance and strength of agricultural co-operative societies that can be used by institutions involved in rural development cooperation. It will improve the accountability of development agencies working with agricultural co-operative societies and generally aim at improving the role of economic farmers’ organizations in development. It will furthermore constitute an input for a database to be constructed on the performance of agricultural co-operative societies.

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