International Health Co-operative Organisation

A sectoral organisation of the ICA

www.ica.coop/ihco

International Health Co-operative Organisation (IHCO)

Theme: Canada

Health Co-op Survey

The first official output coming from IHCO’s health co-op survey includes five national cases from Benin, Canada, Mail, Uganda and USA
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Conference on health co-op, Saskatoon, Canada, October 30th 2008

Organised by the Centre for the Study of Co-operative at the University of Saskatchewan and the Community Health Co-operative Federation, a one-day conference took place in Saskatoon.
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Study tour among community health co-operatives in Saskatchewan (Canada)

Lead by Jean-Pierre Girard, Commissioner for North America and board member (IHCO), a study tour was organised at the end of October 2008 among Saskatchewan (Canada) Community Health co-operatives (CHC).
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New Health Coop in Sherbrooke University has its website
 
The Coop santé de l’Université de Sherbrooke, coopérative de solidarité has seen the light of day in 2007 in the province of Québec, Canada, as the first health cooperative founded in a university setting.

International health co-operativism debated in Madrid

More than 150 healthcare professionals from all over the world met in Madrid at the II International Seminar on Health and Co-operatives organised by the Espriu Foundation on 16 and 17 October, to debate the progress made in health co-operativism as a type of management that contributes added value to the healthcare systems of the future.
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The II International Seminar on Health and Co-operatives:
The II International Seminar on Health and Co-operatives, hosted by the Espriu Foundation is an international debate meeting among health professionals and users focused in social participation, co-responsibility and co-management in health systems where more than 250 participants over the world are expected.
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“The Role of Co-operatives in Health Care”
National and International Perspectives at Canadian Symposium
As opposed to the experience in some countries, co-operatives internationally own hospitals, manufacture pharmaceuticals, and operate long-term care facilities.
What do these international co-operatives look like? How did they develop? And domestically, how do Canadian co-operatives compare?
These are the essential questions that will be addressed at a health symposium in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, on October 30th.
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Manual for Health Co-ops

INCOOP, a government entity in Paraguay who monitors the country’s co-operative legislation, has produced a series of useful manuals and documents for co-operatives, starting from the most basic and moving on to good practices and governance.
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Local Food Initiatives in Canada
Canadian CCA has compiled a document on national local food initiatives. It shows not only the benefits of locally produced food from a health perspective, but also in terms of economy and environment.
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General Assembly in Rome

Nearly 300 delegates met in Rome to discuss and decide on a series of restructuring changes to the ICA Rules. They adopted all recommendations included in the ICA Restructuring Report as proposed and unanimously approved new and amended ICA Rules and By-Laws which include a new subscription and voting system. Members further unanimously elected Mr. Won-Byung Choi of the National Agricultural Co-operative Federation of Korea (NACF) to the ICA Board.

The text of the new ICA Rules and Bye-Laws are now available. See official documentation and texts of presentations made at the Assembly on 5-6 June at:  http://www.ica.coop/calendar/ga2008/

2nd National Forum for Health Co-operatives

Argentinean FAESS invites to its 2nd National Forum for Health Co-operatives, to be held in the Medical Science Faculty in Rosario on the 4-5 of July, 2008.
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IHCO Board Meeting

The Board of the IHCO held its meeting in Madrid on the 6th of May, preceded by a meeting of the IHCO Europe board the day before. The main issue was do discuss the IHCO’s position as a structural organisation of the ICA before the extra General Assembly in June.
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Alicia Kirchner launches Prize

On the 29th of May, the Minister for Social Development and President of the National Council for the Coordination of Social Politics, Ms. Alicia Kirchner, officially launched the “Latin American Prize of the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo” to the Participative Investigation Action, a UNESCO program aiming at uniting social science research to the construction of social politics.
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A Canada-Japan Health Co-op Comparison

IHCO member Jean-Pierre Girard of Canadian Sherbrooke University has, together with the Executive Director of the British Columbia Co-operative Association, written an interesting comparison between the Japanese and the Canadian co-operative health system. The article, that was published in the Making Waves magazine volume 19, is presented in pdf format under the “Publications” menu (Note: only in English).
Read the article>>>

Japanese Reconstruction in Java
A devastating earthquake in May 2006 killed almost 6,000 people and destroyed or damaged up to 400,000 houses in Central Java. As part of the reconstruction process, Japanese HCA-JCCU financed the reconstruction of a health clinic.
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ICA Extraordinary Assembly
The ICA holds an extraordinary General Assembly in Rome, Italy, on 5-6 June 2008. The Assembly is being convened to consider the proposals of the Board towards restructuring ICA. It will provide ICA members the opportunity to discuss proposed changes to the ICA Rules and Standing Orders - including a new subscription formula - and take decisions on further steps to be taken to ensure that ICA is a viable and unified organisation.
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Caption: Dr. Guisado at the round-table with ILO and European Commission representatives.

International co-operation and health care protection

Dr. José C. Guisado, president of IHCO and CEO of the Espriu Foundation, participated in the meeting of the International Cooperation Commission (ICC) of the Association Internationale de la Mutualité held in Brussels on the 11th March.
He also met with Marc-Henry Cornély of Belgian OPHACO.
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7 new co-ops join Argentinean FAESS
Argentinean health co-op FAESS was considerably strengthened during 2007, as seven new co-operatives joined the organization.
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Espriu Foundation joins Social Business Confederation
Spanish health co-operative Espriu Foundation has joined the Spanish Social Business Confederation of Social Economy (CEPES), as the representative for Spain’s health co-operatives.
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First ACYM Meeting
The first meeting of the Co-Operative and Mutual America (ACYM) network was held in Montevideo, Uruguay, in November. IHCO was represented by Dr. Ricardo López, President of Argentinean health co-op FAESS.
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Promoting perfect sleep
British Co-operatives UK assists in a venture to improve sleeping comfort.
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Unimed moves forward
Brazilian health co-operative Unimed has undertaken an important and significant journey over the last years. The organisation has consistently worked with – and refined – the Unimed branding and social responsibility projects.
28-30 of November, 200 marketing and social responsibility managers convened in Mogí das Cruzes, outside São Paulo, to further advance Unimed’s position.
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New Health Co-op in Sherbrooke University
A health co-operative is seeing the light of day for the first time in a university setting. On November 15, some 100 persons participated in the founding meeting of the Coop santé de l’Université de Sherbrooke, coopérative de solidarité.
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Inform us about your health or social co-operative!
 The IHCO is presently compiling an international survey on health and social co-operatives.
IHCO member organisations are presently participating in the collecting of data from their respective regions, based on two different questionnaires – one for health and social co-ops, another for health and social co-op associations.

If you have not received/answered our survey questionnaire and read these lines, please find the questionnaires here:

•Health and social co-op questionnaire (KBP07QindEN-VF) Word >>>
•Health and social co-op associations questionnaire (KBP07QassEN-VF) Word >>>

Please submit this information as soon as possible to Genevieve.Bussiere@USherbrooke.ca
 Thank you for your contribution!
 Read more about our survey >>> 

NEXT MEETINGS : See IHCO Calendar