On Being Cooperative

| December 5, 2011

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, highlighting the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, particularly their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.  With the theme of “Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World”, the Year seeks to encourage the growth and establishment of cooperatives all over the world. It also encourages individuals, communities and governments to recognize the agency of cooperatives in helping to achieve internationally agreed upon development goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals.                     -U.N. IYC Webpage Introduction

It’s about time.  Finally, there is light being shown on a methodology which has for too long been relegated to the very back pages of economic and organizational development.  Like one of its cousins in the U.S., employee ownership, cooperativism has the potential to create sustainable and meaningful change for organizations and individuals alike, and the U.N. declaration hopes to advance that awareness around the world.  I know that we will be taking note with our partners in Nicaragua.

The themes are entirely consistent with the focus and methodologies that Winds of Peace has employed over the past year, in particular:

Increase
awareness
  • Increase public awareness about cooperatives and their contributions to socio-economic development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
Promote growth
  • Promote the formation and growth of co-operatives among individuals and institutions to address common economic needs and for socio-economic empowerment
Establish
appropriate
policies
  • Encourage Governments and regulatory bodies to establish policies, laws and regulation conducive to co-operative formation and growth.

Cooperatives are not a panacea or even a simple way of organizing an economic enterprise.  In fact, when done with excellence, coops are a more complex way of doing business.  There is a demand for more and better communication among the participants.  Participants come to expect more information about the causes-and-effects of their business, decisions are more frequently made by participant teams rather than one individual, participants expect to have a greater “say” in the business, the organizational configuration often more closely resembles a circle than a triangle, and coops as a result sometimes respond more slowly to changing circumstances.  But when done with excellence, coops can promote business growth, learning, entrepreneurial skills individual development and accelerated wealth creation faster than more traditional forms of ownership/management.  It’s why the U.N. has taken such a visible stand with its declaration.  And it’s why Winds of Peace has provided increasing support to the coops of Nicaragua.  The good news is that we know what the excellent practices consist of and that they can be learned and replicated anywhere.

Read the advantages cited by the IYC in its description of coop strengths:

  • Cooperative enterprises build a better world.
  • Cooperative enterprises are member owned, member serving and member driven
  • Cooperatives empower people
  • Cooperatives improve livelihoods and strengthen the economy
  • Cooperatives enable sustainable development
  • Cooperatives promote rural development
  • Cooperatives balance both social and economic demands
  • Cooperatives promote democratic principles
  • Cooperatives and gender: a pathway out of poverty
  • Cooperatives: a sustainable business model for youth
If even a portion of such claims are true (and there is ample evidence to support such claims), the case to be made in support of cooperative development is solid.  And we think that our evolving experiences at Winds of Peace further confirms the potential contained in the coop movement.  Spend some time reviewing the growing body of research and experiences under the Rural Development heading on the left side of the WPF homepage.  The articles and experiences there reflect our belief in the importance of the cooperative movement, but also the ways in which the strengthening occurs when done with excellence.  Elements of collaborative work, open-book financial literacy, wealth sharing, participative decision-making and holistic strategic thinking can create a very different reality for, in this case, coffee farmers who can see the advantage in strengthening one another.
The year 2012 might well prove to be a threshold year for coops around the world.  I hope lawmakers in the United States take heed of the essential elements in cooperativism, particularly in light of the misdeeds and mismanagement of so many of our large public corporations brought to light over the past several years; ownership structures like cooperatives and employee-owned companies represent a healthy alternative to such sick environments on the basis of greater involvement by more of the participants.  I know that Winds of Peace will continue to seek out Nicaraguan coops that are committed to the principles of effective cooperativism and who are eager to experience cooperative life done with excellence….

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Worth the Visit

| August 19, 2009

One of the sites I visited last week was the Buculmay Cooperative, an outgrowth from the Women’s Council of the Indigenous People of Jinotega.  I’ve written before about how abused these women (and some men) were at the hands of the unscrupulous Board President, but take a look at where the coop is now!  They are in the middle of a pig-raising project financed in part by the government, and they are on track to become a model for this activity!  From less-than-obscurity to state-of-the art livestock, and with all of the recognition and self-esteem that such progress brings.

 Nica August 2009 032 Nica August 2009 033

It’s one thing to develop a vision of what you want to become and a mission to specify how to get there.  But it’s another thing altogether to bring those concepts into reality, especially when you’re at the bottom of the pile socially and economically to begin with.  But with patience and a belief in the “rightness” of their independent walk, the Buculmay members are doing just that.

  

   

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From organizing themselves into a coop to learning the basics of collaborative work, as was happening in the above sessions, the members have been eager learners on their own behalf.  Some of the rudimentary business plans they created on their very first attempts were as good as some I’ve seen in mature corporations!  It was during this training session that the government became aware of the unusual extent of education that Buculmay was experiencing.  As a result, the government approached Buculmay with the proposal to manage the pig project!

 

Nica August 2009 047 One of the means by which this project is being funded is through the members’ own contributions, made possible by the crops that are raised and sold (yes, in addition to developing the pig-raising enterprise, these folks have “real” live, too).  Availing themselves of better seeds and fertilizers (not chemicals or GMO stuff), they have vastly improved their harvests.  Just contrast the corn crop in the foreground- grown under traditional means- with the field in the background, using newer methods and more indigenous inputs.  The volume difference is overwhelming, and these women are not necessarily farmers!  This could be Iowa corn!

 

Nica August 2009 036 The residence quarters for the Buculmay pigs is not some ramshackle sty.  With technical and construction advisors provided by the government, this modern facility features gravity-fed self-watering apparatus in each stall, grated floors for automatic removal of wastes, a bio-gas facility to capture waste product gas for fuel, four separate electrical sectors for energy efficiency and more.  Here you can see the installation of the main waterline.

 

Buculmay Coop August 09 I’m no pig farmer, but I know organization and efficiency when I see it.  Subsequent buildings to be constructed in Phase 2 of the project will allow separation of the animals according to maturity and need.  Note Julieta on the left, President of the Buculmay Cooperative and a lynchpin in their development.  With justification, she showed us the facility with extreme pride, undoubtedly recalling those dark days several years ago when everything seemed lost.  She did not imagine this!

 

Nica August 2009 054 This good-bye photo captures only a portion of the membership, but the image is in stark contrast to the group with whom we met those several years ago, who wondered how they might survive socially, economically and in every other way.  They stand taller, their smiles are wider and even the surroundings in which we met are brighter.  There is certain satisfaction, I suppose, when members of your community now seek you out to ask about membership in your coop, and the adversary who has oppressed you is now quiet in the face of your earned status as a credible and important entity in the community. 

Buculmay means “the place where corn becomes ground.” Basic.  Honest.  Of the earth.  It’s evident that this collection of courageous actors is true to its name….

Category: Reflections, WPF partners | No Comments »
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