ICA Africa organized a cooperative conference on Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) on good health and well-being that was held on 30^th of May and followed by the 6^th Technical Committee of the Africa Ministerial Cooperative Conference (TCAMCCO) in Harare, Zimbabwe. The conference theme was ‘Promotion of Good Health and Well Being in Africa Through Cooperatives’ and aimed at sensitizing the African cooperative movement and government officials in charge of cooperatives on the need to address the SDG 3 agenda through the promotion of health and wellbeing cooperatives on the continent.

The participants were enriched by presentations on health, well-being and health Insurance cooperatives - case studies from Europe, Americas and Africa Regions. This was followed by the 6^th TCAMCCO forum were government officials responsible for cooperatives in their countries presented their country progress reports and concluded the conference with some six recommendations.

ICA Africa and Aflatoun International signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing to work together to empower children and young people with social, financial, and entrepreneurial skills across the African continent. Working towards the same values and principles, the two organizations believe that the collaboration can increase the capacity of youth in cooperatives and promote social and financial education for young people. The MoU was agreed and signed between the two parties on 28^th May, 2019 during the 6^th Technical Committee of the Ministerial Cooperative Conference in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The two parties saw the need to improve the opportunities of business, job creation and wealth accumulation through cooperative enterprises for youth. ICA Africa Regional Director, Dr. Chiyoge Sifa stated that “Youth are a priority if we want to achieve our ambitious inclusive growth agenda focusing on social transformation, sustained economic growth and integration. The cooperative space enables access to economic opportunities for more young people and the African countries, while protecting the vulnerable.” While Aflatoun International CEO, Mr. Roeland Monasch highlighted that “We need to equip youth in Africa with the skillset and technical know-how that they will require to be employed or become successful entrepreneurs. Sustainable scalable models are a key priority for Aflatoun. By partnering with the International Cooperative Alliance-Africa we will be able to reach many more young people with essential social, financial and entrepreneurial skills.”

ICA Africa President Mr. Japheth Magomere chaired his first ICA Africa members’ forum since he was elected as the president in October 2018. ICA Africa members’ forum brings together its members in a participatory format to discuss and deliberate on the presented agenda, share, exchange and build consensus on measures to be taken. The members’ forum was held on 29^th during the 6^th Technical Committee of the Africa Ministerial Cooperative Conference in Zimbabwe.

The Chairman of the Ushirika Council and ICA Africa President, Mr. Japheth Magomere led other cooperative leaders in Kenya who participated in a Leaders’ Forum as they launched Ushirika Day activities. The forum was held on 10^th May, 2019 and will see a number of programmed activities unfolding before and after the Ushirika Day (Cooperatives Day) that is set to be celebrated on the 6^th of July.

The Principal Secretary in the State Department of Cooperatives in Kenya, Mr. Ali Noor Ismail graced the forum and highlighted that this year’s Cooperatives Day theme “Cooperatives for Decent Work” called upon cooperatives to provide quality goods & services through leadership that is committed of high integrity and accountable to their members.

Cooperatives leaders and members in Ghana raised a concern on the need of the country to have a review of their cooperative law. This was raised during Ghana Co-operative Agricultural Producers and Marketing Association Ltd (AGRICOOPS) workshop in Sunyani Ghana on the 26^th of May.

The General Manager of AGRICOOPS, Mr. Victor Alorbu stated that the existing law was not user friendly for non-cooperators to invest in cooperatives. He also alluded to the fact that AGRICOOPS members are finding it hard to receive services from the Department of Cooperatives thus unable to practice the cooperatives tenets well. The leaders and members therefore called for the government to collaborate with the cooperative departments and other stakeholders to support in the reviewing of the cooperatives law.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) organized a training of trainers on the cooperative business model towards increasing economic opportunities in the fishery sector in Nouakchott, Mauritania on 3 of May, 2019. The workshop was conducted to strengthen the capacity of local institutions to support the organization of fishermen groups including cooperatives and other businesses for value-creation and marketing of fish products.

The training utilized the concept of the three cooperative development tools – Think.coop, Start.coop and My.coop that can help in illustrating how to support the organization of fishermen groups including cooperatives, retailers and processors, wholesalers and distributors for value-creation and marketing of fish products.

Cooperative Bank of Kenya organized for an Annual National Cooperative CEOs workshop from 7^th – 9^th May, 2019 in Mombasa-Kenya to deliberate on key issues concerning the cooperative industry. This year’s theme was “Co-operatives Tomorrow: Technology and Innovation for Sustainable and Inclusive Development”. The participants were engaged on how to revolutionize their societies and operate within the competitive business environment with the constantly changing market dynamics.

The workshop was presided over by the Principal Secretary State Department for Co-operative Development in Kenya, Mr Ali Noor Ismail, who stated the importance of leveraging technology in cooperatives to spur innovation. While the Cooperative Bank Director Cooperative Division, Mr. Vincent Marangu emphasized that technological capabilities in cooperatives will help the participants to think strategically about technology beyond adoption and managing the associated risks.

The Moroccan cooperative movement is making a considerable progress that has been evidenced by the growing collective entrepreneurship interest that is being drawn from different local developmental strategies and programs. The aspect of integrating women into different socio-economic activities especially at the rural level has caught the eyes of a number of partners. Approximately 29% of the cooperators in Morocco are women and almost 14% of the cooperatives are made up exclusively of women.

In the view of the above, Office du Développement de la Coopération (ODCO) carried out a study that highlighted the importance and progress recorded by these cooperatives, their level of decision-making autonomy, integration of young people in cooperatives and even within their governance bodies, their impact in terms of job creation and income and others. Here is the full research report.

Partnership among We Effect and a number of cooperatives in Uganda is one of the strategies of promoting sustainable rural development especially where skills and experience of trainers is required. On 16^th of May 2019, Uganda Housing Cooperative Union and National Association of Women Organization in Uganda trained women from various housing cooperatives in leadership and confidence building to prepare them for leadership posts in their housing cooperatives. Women contribute to 68% of the total membership of the cooperative housing union, a percentage that does not reflected in the leadership positions of the union.

The model of housing cooperative is driven by evidence-based case stories and therefore the participants visited different places where the housing cooperative model has worked to experience and have a feel of how housing cooperative model works.

In partnership with the European Union (EU), ICA Africa held 2 capacity building training workshops on policy dialogue and cooperative related themes and functioning and advocacy towards the EU delegations. The trainings were held on 28^th and 29^th May as provided in the “Cooperatives in Development – People Centered Business in Action” ICA-EU project partnership.

Under the policy dialogue and cooperative related themes, the training targeted youth who were trained on cooperative entrepreneurship. While functioning and advocacy towards the EU delegations training aimed at exposing participants to the structures, the role and potential collaborations with the EU delegation.

Some of the few feedbacks from the participants pointed out that the training outlined some good strategies that will encourage youth to form cooperatives to curb the unemployment rate on the continent.

11. Cooperative Identity Development.

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ICA Africa May 2019 Newsletter

11. Cooperative Identity Development.