Cooperatives and Development - Action speaks louder than words

Ignace Pollet and Patrick Develtere, IRU Courier 1/04
Internationale Raiffeisen Union

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This article is based upon a survey report - Development Co-operation: How Cooperatives Cope by Pollet and Develtere. The work was jointly commissioned by the Belgian Cera Foundation and the Belgian Raiffeisen Foundation (BRS) who contracted the Higher Institute of Labour Studies (a research institute attached to the Catholic University of Leuven) to carry out a survey among large cooperatives and international institutions (with cooperative-oriented programmes). The survey was undertaken in summer 2003 and provides an up-to-date and representative picture of North-South coop-to-coop assistance.

The survey reveals that the tools used by many organisations for their development work are also very much linked to their cooperative origins and background. It revealed that technical assistance remains the most important development instrument used by agencies actively involved in the creation of favourable institutional and legal frameworks for cooperative development in southern countries. However, in recent years many cooperative agencies have been instrumental in creating trading and business linkages between northern and southern cooperatives. Quality-wise, cooperatives are spearheading many of these trading and business development activities. The report concludes by suggesting that the cooperative movement and its associated institutions need to greatly enhance the visibility of the cooperative model for development.