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In many African countries cooperatives do not currently have the ability to effectively represent their members and respond to their needs in the national policy development process. Some countries lack efficient cooperative networks (i.e. horizontal coordination between regional and sectoral cooperative organisations) and cooperative support structures (i.e. vertical coordination between cooperatives at local, meso and national levels). In some other countries, these cooperative support institutions have never existed, or have vanished due to lack of resources in the last decades or due to policy and political changes. If these structures are in place, they are sources of increased competitiveness and empowerment as they provide services to their cooperative members such as: education and training; guidance on market information and access; audit services; credit or business registration; research; communication services etc...
CoopAfrica is promoting and building institutional capacity for the support institutions to deliver business services to cooperatives and to become Centres of Competence.
What is a Cooperative Centre of Competence (CoC)?
A CoC can be defined as an institution which has developed a well-known and proven expertise in cooperative-related areas and business services in general. The expertise may be of a specific domain (e.g. Accounting) and at either academic or practical level, but it can also reflect an inter-disciplinary approach by combining technological developments, cutting-edge research and practical experience (e.g. How to develop market information centres).
The CoC is a reliable, recognised and high quality business service provider that offers relevant services that strengthen cooperatives' identity as well as management and entrepreneurial capacities.
These services may be cross-sectoral, such as research, training programmes, advisory services, community building activities, advocacy strategies, marketing assistance, information and technology development, and business linkage promotion.
They can also be technical or technological and be applied to the very core business of the cooperative (e.g. How to develop post harvest handling systems for higher production of coffee?; How to increase the rate of repayment from credit loans in Savings and Credit Cooperatives?).
In both cases, services can be defined as "operational", as needed for day-to-day operations, such as information and communications or management of accounts; or as “strategic”, when they are used to address medium- and long-term issues in order to improve the performance and productivity of the organisation.
A CoC should in priority stem from the cooperative movement as the objective is to structure and strengthen the movement. Emphasis is thus put on the cooperative support structures (the secondary and tertiary structures including unions, federations, apexes) since they have the mandate to offer services to their cooperative members, and have the knowledge and the comprehension to address the cooperative movement’s philosophy. As a matter of fact, some of these support organisations already play such a role of service providers to their primary societies. In Ethiopia for example, the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union whose members are the growers, processors and suppliers of the Ethiopian coffee, improves the farmer’s income by exporting their coffee directly to international markets under the fair trade principle. It also offers training to its members on quality production methods and post harvest handling.
However, other types of organisations which are closely related to and/or working specifically towards cooperative development are identified to be CoC. They include for example cooperative colleges, ministerial departments of cooperatives, centres for informal sector promoting cooperatives etc… as well as social partners.
The rationale of setting up a cooperative Centre of Competence network
In response to a loosely connected and sometimes fragmented cooperative movement, CoopAfrica seeks to build an effective institutional capacity of cooperative support structures to provide the skills and resources for cooperatives to grow and prosper as true business entities that can generate income for their members. Organising and strengthening support structures into CoC is a way to realise the vertical and horizontal integration that the cooperative movement in Africa strongly needs. These support structures need to be better equipped with technical skills to better meet their cooperative members’ needs and aspirations and to bring social and economic cohesion. They also need to be reinforced through cooperation with other sectoral or type of cooperatives (e.g. Saccos, agricultural cooperative, consumer cooperatives etc…). The CoC network will shape an interconnected and coherent movement through:
- Achieving the structuration of cooperation amongst cooperatives;
- Reinforcing the institutional capacity and legitimacy of cooperative support structures
- Promoting and advocating for the cooperative business model in tackling development issues;
- Supporting a self-regulated and self-developed process;
- Building a cooperative business network that could be shared across Africa for a better visibility of the cooperative movement.
What are the benefits to become a CoC?
- Priority access to Challenge Fund up to USD 150,000 for service provision to cooperatives for Operational CoC
- Access to capacity building support funds for CoC ‘In waiting’ in need of upgrading internal capacity areas
- Peer recognition by professional bodies in identified area of expertise
- Enlistment into a Cooperative CoC Catalogue (See List of CoC) made accessible and visible for enhancement of business opportunities
The CoC process
How can an organisation apply to the CoC selection process?
The national cooperative movement in Africa (through the National Advisory Group (pdf file, 104Kb) and Focal Points), with the support of CoopAfrica has sets up a procedure of identification, selection, monitoring and evaluation of CoC.
A first screening and capacity assessment process allows the identification of organisations that are immediately ‘Operational CoC’ and those CoC ‘In Waiting’ which need to be strengthened.
CoopAfrica will use the expertise of other Business development Service Providers (BDS) such as NGOs, development centres, private enterprises or research institutes, to be contracted to provide support directly to primary cooperatives or indirectly by building capacity of potential cooperative CoC.
For more information, please refer to the CoC Guidelines (MsWord file, 705Kb). For applying, fill in the CoC Application Form (MsWord, 159Kb). Send your filled Application Form to coopafrica@ilo.org
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