CoopAfrica is principally funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The Programme is also funded by the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND) and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Government of Finland.
CoopAfrica applies a flexible and rapid intervention instrument that can be called upon by governments, cooperative movements and development partners. It also provides support and advice to international multi and bi-lateral development partners working in Africa. Other donors - including cooperative movements - are invited to join in the programme rather than support a number of ad-hoc projects.
CoopAfrica is a partnership initiative jointly with:
- International Cooperative Alliance (ICA)
The ICA is the umbrella organization of the international cooperative movement and is the largest NGO in the world (representing some 800 million individual cooperative members). The ICA consists of a number of specialized, sectoral organizations, thematic committees and regional offices. It has a permanent observer status in the ILO and enjoys special status in the UN. Its regional office for Africa is located in Nairobi.
The ICA is mobilizing technical and financial support from the international cooperative movement for the CoopAfrica initiative, and play a key role in brokering trade agreements between African cooperatives and their counterparts in the rest of the world.
- UK Co-operative College
The UK Co-operative College is based in Manchester and delivers education and training as well as research and consultancy. It manages a DFID funded research programme on cooperatives and development . UKCC has assisted cooperative colleges in amongst others in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania to revisit their curriculum and education methods.
The Co-operative College is providing expertise in curriculum development and active learning educational methodology in collaboration with African cooperative colleges. It is also providing short-term, high-level training for the academic personnel of these colleges.
- African Union Secretariat
The African Union Secretariat is located in Addis Ababa - Ethiopia. CoopAfrica is dealing in particular with the labour and social affairs commission, as well as the Regional Economic Commissions in the different sub regions of Africa.
The African Union is contributing in the selection process of the Challenge Fund project proposals of CoopAfrica.
- Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC)
The COPAC brings together the UN, the ILO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the ICA, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), the cooperative promotion agencies of Canada and Sweden and the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation.
COPAC is ensuring the coordination of its members’ activities in Africa with the work programme of CoopAfrica.
- International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
The ITUC was established in 2006, by bringing together the former affiliates of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), along with trade union organisations which had no previous global affiliation. Its members are national centres. The ITUC represents 168 million workers through its 306 affiliated organisations within 154 countries and territories - 40 per cent are women The ITUC, the ICA and the ILO are working together in organizing African informal economy workers into cooperatives.
The ITUC is mobilizing its members on the African continent to collaborate with the cooperative organizations in their respective countries with a particular emphasis on organizing informal economy workers. The ITUC is representing the workers’ point of view.
