The ICA Africa Cooperative Ministerial Conference Midterm Review took place on May 23-26, 2017 in Casablanca, Morocco. Building on a series of discussions on cooperatives’ role in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the meeting focused on “Propelling Cooperatives in Africa to End Poverty” corresponding to SDG1 (end poverty). It brought together African government officials and cooperative leaders to discuss the partnerships needed toward advancing SDG1 as well as to review the progress since the last Ministerial Conference in 2015.

ILO COOP was asked to present on two panels during the event. The first panel focused on “Strengthening Agricultural Cooperatives in Africa” with WeEffect and FAO as the other institutions represented on the panel. The ILO presentation reflected on the approach of the organization on the role of cooperatives in rural development focusing on a set of interrelated conditions that make up the enabling environment for cooperative enterprises. The role of subregional framework laws (OHADA and Eastern Africa regions) was noted as well as the need for strengthening inter-continental trade links between producer and retail cooperatives in select global supply chains.

In the second day, the ILO presentation focused on the work of the organization with cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises in Africa. The tripartite nature of the ILO and the consultative status of cooperative movement was mentioned during this presentation. The importance of the participation of cooperatives in the 2030 agenda discussions at the national, subregional and regional levels was underlined. It was also noted that the contribution of cooperatives to the SDG indicators needs to be tracked through better statistics of cooperatives that shows their impact.

At the end of the meeting, the Africa Cooperative Development Strategy (2017-20) was adopted including references to collaboration with the ILO. In addition an ILO/ICA Africa joint concept note for SADC region on “Cooperative enterprises supporting the achievement of the SDGs through an increased participation in trade in SADC countries” was presented by the Honourable Minister from Botswana and was approved and adopted by the African Ministers present. In the context of this proposal the idea of expanding cooperative to cooperative trade was also discussed with the representative from the Consumer Cooperatives Worldwide, based on the example of the Savannah Coop Danish retail cooperatives working with Kenyan coffee producer cooperatives.