CICOPA Strategic document for the Cooperative Decade

Th he voice of cooperatives sinn industry and d services

STRA ATEG GIC DO OCUM MENT FOR R THE COO OPERA ATIVE E DEC CADE

INTRODU UCTION: O OPPORTUNITIES AN ND CHALLEENGES

The timee has come for industrial and servi ce cooperattives (mainlyy worker coooperatives and social cooperatives, but also artisans’’ cooperativves, cooperaatives of micro‐enterpriises, cooperatives of professio onals, variou us types of m multi‐stakehoolders’ cooperatives) to make their bbiggest breakthrough ever at tthe global level. Coopera atives have eemerged as aa historic ressponse by orrdinary peop ple to the satisfacttion of their own basic n needs, follow wing the advvent of the m modern worlld with the iindustrial revolutio on and a firsst wave of globalization. However, aapart from a few countriies and regio ons (such as Italy, Spain, Francce, Uruguay or Quebec, China in the e 1930s and 40s, India inn the 1950s and 60s), nd service seectors have b begun to devvelop substaantially only as of the cooperatives in the industrial an 1980s. FFollowing this developme ent, a numbber of cooperative federa ations were established (Canada, USA, Jap pan, Brazil, Argentina, South Koreaa, Finland etc.) e or re‐e established ((Poland, Chiina etc.).

Industriaal and servicce cooperatiives have noow become one of the main strandds of cooperratives to develop around thee world, likke rural cre dit cooperaatives in the e 19th Centuury and consumers’ he 20th Cent ury. cooperatives in the ffirst half of th

The last few years haave ushered in yet a new w phase in the developme ent of our coooperative se ector linked w with the follow wing factors:

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The excesses of the financializ ed econ nomy, in spite of their weallth desttruction effeect and the fact that thhey havee gone on almost unaba ated since t he glob bal crisis flarred up in 2007‐2008, aare grad dually bringging about a counteer‐ reacction in policcy making (e e.g. the Frennch draftt Hamon law l focusin ng mainly oon business transfeers to employees) and in publlic opinion towards t a re eturn towarrds the real econom my, entrepre eneurship a nd ustrialization. indu

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The impre essive expannsion of glob bal chains of producction and disstribution, in n spite of their grow wing strenggth, is also bringing about a trend tow wards re‐localization, including in such basicc goods as fo oodstuffs and clothe es.

There iss a growi ng trend towards subcontra acting servicees to industrries, such as logistics and engineeering.

Demograp phic and so cietal changges in all the world d’s regions have creatted new needs, in n particula r in the field of communitty services (oor services o of general

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Th he voice of cooperatives sinn industry and d services

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interrest, in such h sectors as health, sociial, educcational, cultural and environment e tal services. At the same time, a privatizatioon drivee in the same secctors is allso acceelerating th he trend towards t he creation of SMEss active in them.

– carpenterrs, mechaniccs, Locaal artisans – bakeers etc. – aree increasinglyy called to jooin some form of economic asssociationism in ordeer to survivee and develop in spite of glob bal chains in tthe same secctors.

Tourrism and the t recuperration of t he regio onal culturall and industrial heritagee is a gro owing trend that is at the e root of ma ny new w business and a jobs, including undder the ccooperative form.

Opportunities to o transform m industrial or service enterprises in crisis or withoout succcessor are in ncreasing, be ecause of booth econ nomic (glo obal restructuring) a nd dem mographic (baby‐boom ( ers reachi ng retirrement age) reasons.

The experience of the last 30 years in establishing economically sustainabble coop peratives in the most va aried industrrial and service secttors (from office o cleani ng nano‐techno ologies, from m catering to to n publlic works) provides us with t he suffiicient cred dibility to utilize t he coop perative forrm in all industrial i a nd service sectors, iin all part of the world. m advanc ed The experiences of the most that coop perative groups aare pred dominantly or o totally in industries a nd services provide a strongg promise of sustaainability to o industrial and serviice coop peratives amidst th he globaliz ed econ nomy, includ ding in the m most advanc ed and mainstream sectors.

At the ssame time, our coopera ative sector is also facing daunting challenges:

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The abovve mentioneed financialissation of the econo omy and streengthening of global chains of production and distrib bution, in g positive counter‐ spite of producing s reactions, remains a mong the strongest challenges to the typ pe of neurship wh ich cooperatives are entrepren promoting g.

Drastic re eductions inn public bud dget and non‐paym ment or late payments by b public authoritie es.

Key need ds in capitaal among scattered s cooperative SMEs in oorder to inno ovate and internatio onalize.

Rising une employmentt and social e exclusion, including among the youth, is becoming b the central problem in a growin ng list of countries..

CIICOPA VISIO ON: approvedd by the 2007 7 CIICOPA Generral Assemblyy To o be recog gnized as tthe organization of re eference wh hich providees an effecctive and effficient glo obal voice and forrum for kn nowledge, expertise andd coordinate ed action fo or and aboutt industrial, aartisans’, service and so ocial cooperatives andd cooperativves with worker owner w rship.

CIICOPA MISS SION STATEM MENT: apprroved by th he 2007 CICO OPA Generaal Assembly and the ad dditions to the ICA mission statement, fo ormally intro oduced at t he beginnin ng of the ne ew ICA Sttatute, appproved with h minor syyntaxic chan nges at thee ICA Extra aordinary General Assem mbly in Rom me, 6 June 2008; 2 the “ aartisans’, serrvice and exxpression “industrial, so ocial cooperatives andd cooperativves with worker w own nership” coorresponds to the de efinition of the cooperaative sector covered byy CICOPA mentioned m 3 of the in Art. 1.3 CIICOPA Rules.

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Th he voice of cooperatives sinn industry and d services

CICOPA serves, promotes and unittes industriaal, artisanss’, service and soccial cooperatives and cooperatives c with workker hip worldwid de in compliance with t he ownersh cooperative values and a principle es, and makkes the casse for theirr distinctive e value‐bas ed economic business m model which h also providdes individuaals and communitie es with an of instrumeent of muttual help, generation g sustainable employm ment and im mpact on theeir long‐term m social and d economic developmennt.

CICOPA advocates th he interests and success of industriaal, artisanss’, service and soccial cooperatives and cooperatives c with workker hip, disseminates best practices a nd ownersh

now‐how about them,, strengthe ens their kn de evelopment and cappacity‐building and monitors thei m r performannce and progress over time.

ST TRATEGY In n order to co omply with tthe above vision and mission, m fullyy take adva ntage of th he above mentioned m historical h o pportunity for our co ooperative sector, andd meet the above ch hallenges, th he followingg strategic proposals, framed within n the 5 mainn objectives stated in th he ICA Bluep print for a CCooperative Decade, arre proposed. p

1. PARTICIP PATION [M MEMBERSH HIP AND N NETWORK KING] “ELEV VATE PARTICIPA ATION WITHIN N MEMBERSHIPP AND GOVERN NANCE TO A NEW LEVEL”

1.1.

Participaation of mem mbers in coooperatives

Coop peratives aree about satissfying peoplee’s needs thrrough people’s democraatic control. IIndustrial and service coo operatives (w worker, sociial, artisans’’ and multi‐‐stakeholderrs’ cooperatives) are nly about saatisfying peo ople’s emplooyment, prod duction and general intterest needs through main workkers’ and pro oducers’ dem mocratic conntrol. Democcratic control by the veryy enterprise staff and by p producers wh ho put their vvery means oof livelihood d at stake is p particularly ddifficult to atttain, and o convince citizens c to eengage in this t kind of enterprisess (through start‐ups, s it is difficult to convversion of co onventional enterprises or other modalities) m in n the first pplace. This re equires a stron ng promotio onal effort in order to sti r citizens’ motivation in doing so. M ore promotiion of the workker‐member at the globa al level will hhave to be do one, both in general andd in the speccific cases of w workers takin ng control of f their enterpprises througgh business ttransfers, as well as of p physically, men ntally or socia ally disadvan ntaged workeers. In the fie eld of community servicees, the growing trend towaards multi‐sstakeholder participatioon (namely the inclusion of the different types of stakeholders in the governa ance of the cooperative e, shall be promoted, p inn abidance with the C s which recommend a 30% minimuum aggregatte voting Worrld Standards of Social Cooperatives pow wer to the wo orkers in cooperatives haaving differen nt types of m members.

In th he wake of seeveral manu uals drafted aat the nation nal level on h how to estabblish such en nterprises and how to manage them, CICOPA shoulld edit ‘matrrix’ manuals for worker ccooperatives, another

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Th he voice of cooperatives sinn industry and d services

one for social cooperativess, and (wheen the relevvant standards are dellineated, see part 3 “identity” below w) one for arttisans’ coopeeratives, possibly with the ILO. A wo orld‐wide sysstem of certiffication for w worker and so ocial coopera atives, basedd on the expe erience of mem mbers in evaaluation of the t cooperattives’ socioeconomic imp pact (social auditing etcc.) should gradually be put in place together with meembers.

1.2.

Entrepre eneurial inte er‐cooperatioon

Our cooperativee sector is th he one withh most scatte ered SMEs, while being among those which most need regro ouping in bigger entrepreeneurial systems (consortia, groups, nnetworks).

At th he most bassic level, a culture c of trrying to do business b witth another ccooperative as a a first optio on (at the saame conditions of pricee and qualityy as other co ompeting ennterprises, of course) shou uld begin to o prevail. CICOPA C shouuld widely encourage this culturee: after proposing a correesponding resolution r att the ICA leevel, CICOPA A and its me embers shouuld devise ways w and meaans to implement it, and d establish ccriteria to measure it. Th his should bbe part of the above‐ ntioned certiffication syste em. men Coop perative entrrepreneurial groupings oof all kinds sh hould be actively promotted through writings, meeetings and exxchanges am mong coope rative group ps, and by th he establish ment of a dedicated d workking group.

In orrder to encourage coope erative groupps, the above e mentioned d manual shoould have sections on coop perative grou ups, or a spe ecific manuaal on cooperative group should be d rafted. It should also be a specific secttion of the ce ertification ssystem.

1.3.

Participaation of cooperatives in federatio ons and support to thhe creation of new federations

In m most countriees in the wo orld, and eveen in most ccountries where the ICA has membe ers, there are no cooperattive organisations in ouur sector. In part of the ese countriees (such as Malaysia, M onesia, Thailaand, Myanm mar, India, Baangladesh, Nigeria, N Ghana, Botwanaa, Costa Rica a, Serbia, Indo Croaatia, Bosnia etc.), an inte ersectoral coooperative organization o that could ppromote coo operative orgaanisations in our country exists, like i n the successsful case of Paraguay, w where an inte ersectoral orgaanization, Compacoop, has becom me a CICOPA member and is nnow promo oting the establishment in n a federation in our secttor.

CICO OPA thus wiill continue to encouragge the esta ablishment of o federationns able to represent r coop peratives in o our sector, w when these ffederations d do not exist,, namely in m most countriies of the worlld, and to help h consoliidate and aaffiliate veryy small startt‐up federattions. Depen nding on natio onal circumsstances, a fiirst step shoould be to engage e natio onal inter‐seectoral organisations (wheere they do eexist) about the promotiion and the federation o of our sector, r, and a second one is

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Th he voice of cooperatives sinn industry and d services

the ccreation of sspecific secto oral organisaations in ourr sector. Butt in other naational enviro onments, secto oral organisations have to be estabblished from m scratch, as has happenned over the last 20 yearrs in many co ountries (see e above). Thiss work will h have to be pu ursued relenttlessly.

CICO OPA should also encoura age the disssemination of o new techn nologies whiich can facillitate the partticipation of grassroots cooperatives es (especiallyy in national environmeent where these are scatttered with large distancces betweenn each otherr) in federations, as wel l as the exchange of pracctices among g member fed derations co ncerning the eir governance and particcipation pracctices.

1.4.

Participaation of ICA member orgganisations iin CICOPA

The global mem mbership sysstem approvved in 2008 has opened d important new possib bilities to increease the CIC COPA netwo ork through sectoral afffiliations. A number off new organ nisations, inclu uding from n new countrie es, have becoome membe ers of CICOPA since this system has been put in place. Yet, th he results ha ave been low wer than wh hat could be e expected. There are still many natio onal inter‐seectoral orga anisations thhat are mem mbers of th he ICA and have not made m the prom motion of ou ur cooperativve sector a p riority.

CICO OPA will thus need to co onvince suchh organisatio ons to join CICOPA. C In ddoing so, CIC COPA will havee to make them understa and the strattegic importaance of our ccooperative ssector.

At th he same timee, CICOPA sh hould providee clearer exp planations to o ICA membeers about thee types of coop peratives tha at are part off our cooperrative sector.. In particular, CICOPA shhould empha asise that it is the only ICA A sectoral orrganization w which is relevant for artiisans’ coopeeratives, cooperatives of m micro‐enterp prises, coop peratives off profession nals, cooperrative schoools, and prroducers’ coop peratives in tthe environm ment field. TTogether with IHCO, it is also a refereence organizzation for health cooperatiives (see cross‐membersship with IHC CO in next section).

1.5.

Creatingg and consollidating CICO OPA regiona al and sub‐re egional orgaanisations ass entities participaated by natio onal federattions

The recently estaablished CICOPA regionaal (CICOPA‐Americas) and d sub‐region al (CICOPA‐M Mercosur and CICOPA‐Norrth America) organisationns need to b be strongly re einforced opperationally. Whereas CICO OPA‐Americaas needs to a assert its rolee within the ICA‐America as board (in which our se ector has onlyy recently beecome permanently rep resented), general g assem mbly and peeriodical con nferences and seminars (as it has succcessfully beggun to do), C CICOPA Merccosur and CIICOPA‐North America uld graduallyy take up all the main fuunctions of cross‐border ffederations, engaged in a similar shou netw working endeavour amo ong neighboouring counttries as the one in whiich CECOP has h been engaaged in Europe over the last 30 yearss.

Although it has strongly reinforced itseelf over the last 5 years (in spite of f the crisis which w has n plaguing Eu urope since that time), CCECOP needss further consolidation inn order to continue to been reinfforce the CIC COPA secreta ariat. Indeedd, CECOP is the only CICO OPA entity w which can ma anage the

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CICO OPA secretarriat for the time being. A At the same time, the co onsolidation of CICOPA‐M Mercosur and CICOPA‐North America would relieeve the CEC COP staff of an importaant part of its work, thereby indirecttly participatting in the cconsolidation n of CECOP and of the CECOP‐CICO OPA joint secretariat.

CICO OPA regionall and sub‐reg gional structtures should gradually be e establishedd in other parts of the worlld where theere are at lea ast 2 or 3 couuntries with C CICOPA mem mbers.

1.6.

Reinforcce CICOPA itself as coorddinator of a gglobal netwo ork

CICO OPA itself neeeds to substantially im mprove its networking and coordinaation capacitty. Along with h the reinforcement of CICOPA reggional and sub‐regional s organisatioons, this misssion will increeasingly be d devolved to regional andd sub‐region nal entities. Neverthelesss, the latter will take man ny years to ccover all worrld regions aand sub‐regions, and, in the meantim e CICOPA me, only the glob bal entity will be able to o do the cooordination work w in the parts of thee world thatt are not orgaanized in regional or sub‐‐regional struuctures.

The gradual creaation and co onsolidation of CICOPA regional and sub‐regionaal structures does not dimiinish the ro ole of CICOP PA itself: w within the globalizing world, w the gglobal releva ance and coorrdination work of CICOPA A is being inccreasingly im mportant.

CICO OPA will havve to improvve its own teechnical cap pabilities in order o to hellp members from all parts of the wo orld participate in its g lobal meetings, in particular execuutive committee and geneeral assembly.

At th he same tim me, physical meetings arre essential. The 2 year appointmennt, together with ICA meeetings, should continue to be higghly valorize ed, and CIC COPA shouldd make all possible institutional effo orts to make e sure that most memb bers from alll over the w world can jo oin those meeetings. At thee same time e, CICOPA shhould put in place a sysstem with a larger congress‐type meeeting every 4 4 years, as mobilizing m alll members every e 2 yearrs is very diffficult. Although such meeetings should d perhaps be b organizedd within the e frameworkk of the ICA A series of biannual meeetings, it shou uld maintain n its characteer of a CICOP PA conferencce (like in Osllo in 2003, C Cartagena in 20005, Cancun in 2011 and Marseille inn 2012).

CICOPA’’s participatiion in ICA 1.7.

CICO OPA needs to improve itts participatiion in the IC CA and its in nteraction w with other ICA A bodies.

Although the ICA 2008 extraordinary geeneral assem mbly has putt CICOPA annd other ICA A sectoral n a par with the ICA reggions, such p parity has no ot been com pletely implemented orgaanisations on afterr 5 years. Sttrong effortss will thus h ave to be displayed to raise CICOPA A’s participa ation and interraction withiin the ICA strructure.

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Th he voice of cooperatives sinn industry and d services

As faar as the intteraction witth the ICA reegions is concerned, the e cooperatioon with ICA‐A Americas and Cooperativees Europe, through CICCOPA‐Ameriicas and CE ECOP respecctively, need ds to be conssolidated. Intteraction witth ICA‐Asia‐PPacific and IC CA‐Africa will have to be strongly ste epped up, with h the help of CICOPA members in tthese two re egions, and, if needed, even before e CICOPA regio onal and sub b‐regional organisations ccan be estab blished in the ese two regioons.

OPA should cooperate even e more cclosely with other ICA sectoral orgaanisations within w the CICO SOLG G (sectoral o organisationss liaison grouup) both to rreach institu utional conseensus and to o work on conccrete collabo orative issue es and transsfer of know wledge. CICO OPA should promote th he use of higher‐level teleconferencingg for the SOLLG.

The special relaationship with w IHCO shhould be re einforced. The T proposaal to practicce cross‐ mbership beetween the two organnisations haas been enshrined in a memoran ndum of mem undeerstanding, w which should d be graduallly implemented.

2. SSUSTAINA ABILITY [D DEVELOPM MENT] “POSITION COO OPERATIVES ASS BUILDERS OF F SUSTAINABILITTY”

In CICOPA’s com mments to the first drafft of the Ou utline for a Cooperative C Decade, sustainable oal (geared ttowards the world in deveelopment waas seen as the main lonng term and external go geneeral, not jusst to the existing internnational cooperative nettwork). Thuss, logically, CICOPA’s interrpretation of o the “sustainability” part of the Cooperative Decade mainly foccuses on deveelopment, a a type of developme nt which is i sustainab ble econom mically, socially and environmentallyy.

Thro ough the Coo operative De ecade, CICOPPA should de emonstrate that cooperaatives in gen neral and in ou ur sector in p particular are e fundamenttal to territorial developm ment all ove r the world.

In particular, th he following dimensionss of our coo operative sector’s contrribution to territorial t deveelopment should be bettter emphasizzed and prom moted: 

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TThe focus on industries and servicees as a fundamental eng gine of deveelopment and wealth ccreation, jusst after the d developmentt of agricultu ure, includin ng in compleementary acttivities to aagriculture.

TThe focus on n worker ownership and the figure off worker‐me ember as a keey to entrepreneurial d developmen nt and to citizzens’ econom mic participaation in territtorial develoopment.

TThe role off cooperatives in providding opportunities for social inclussion of marrginalised ggroups.

TThe focus on n stable emp ployment andd on environ nmentally an nd socially suustainable prroduction aas promoted d by the coop perative moddel and value es.

TThe focus on n high qualitty services, i ncluding in p partnership with the pubblic sector, b being the ssustainable developmen nt of servicces of gene eral interestt (educationnal, health but also iinfrastructurre, transportts, water, saanitation etcc…) a centra al issue for wealth crea ation and tterritorial deevelopment.

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TThe role of cooperativess in educatioon and capaacity building g, which alsoo correspond ds to our ssector.

TThe transforrmation of enterprises thhat are going to close down into su stainable en nterprises aand the con nsequent ma aintenance oof jobs and economic e activities on thhe territory is key to tterritorial deevelopment.

TThe role of m multi‐stakeho older cooperratives in briinging the va arious territoorial stakeholders in a local develop pment action n.

TThe strong tendency t to cooperate aamong enterprises and establish ennterprise gro oups with ccommon enterprise promotion servvices, in partticular in purchase, saless, combined d product o offer, innovvation and internationaalization, haas a strong impact onn local and regional d developmen nt.

TThe key rolee of cooperattives, especiaally in our se ector, in provviding work, career oppo ortunities aand hope for young gene erations.

In order to prom mote these strong s pointts of our coo operative sector in territtorial develo opment a seriees of initiativves should be b initiated and pursued d, distinguish hing betweeen the focuss on local deveelopment itself on the on ne hand, andd prospects iin international cooperattion for deve elopment (how w to develop p the coopera ative movem ment at the gglobal level and set up insstruments to o support the d developmen nt of coopera atives in the different co ountries and strengthen tthe networkk through econ nomic coopeeration) on th he other.  

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Deepen the CICOPA deveelopment strrategy adoptted in 2009 a and draft a m manual based on it (if possible in p partnership w with the ILO) .

C Create and consolidate a global nettwork of developers, me eeting mainlly through electronic e o could excha ange on devvelopment sttrategies for our sector bbased on the e CICOPA means, who d developmen nt strategy Develop the incipient ne etwork with ddevelopment NGOs. C Create a worrld‐wide worrking group oon the promotion of cooperative grooups.

C Create a worrld‐wide worrking group oon business ttransfer to employees.

Launch an environmenta e al campaignn and monitor the comp pliance of thhe enterprise es of our networks with environm ment‐friendly y production (according to criteria to establish).

Pursue an annual survvey on coopperative ressilience and edit an annnual reportt on the ssocioeconom mic evolution n of our sectoor in the worrld.

Establish a network with academicc institution ns geared to owards the issue of sustainable d developmen nt.

Make the Coopspace C website w for bbusiness to business b con ntacts and innternationallization a ffunctioning o one and high hly participatted by memb bers.

3. C CAPITAL [[DEVELOP PMENT] “SECU URE RELIABLE C CAPITAL WHILE E GUARANTEEIN NG MEMBER C CONTROL”

Capiital, in coop peratives, is instrument al to develo opment, and d we shouldd thus conssider this objeective of the Cooperative Decade outline as being subo ordinated too the previious one (susttainability).

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This being said, tthe need forr capital in inndustrial and d service coo operatives duuring this de ecade will conttinue to grow w exponentially. Cooperratives, and particularly in our sectoor, are laggin ng behind in en ngineering lo ocal, nationa al and internnational finaancial instruments that are needed for their own n development.

The basis to cap pital formation being in the cooperaative enterprises themseelves, CICOP PA should focu us first of alll on this dim mension. Ann in‐depth gllobal study on the impaact of legallyy‐binding indivvisible reservves on our cooperative c sector (as th he reality se eems to dem monstrate) should be donee, in order to strongly p promote the indivisible rreserve model of capital accumulatio on at the coop perative enteerprise level.

CICO OPA should cconstitute a gglobal workinng group on developmen nt and financcial instrumeents of its netw work, based on the existing Europea n working group, and working main ly through e electronic meaans.

Togeether with these financiial organisattions, and pooling in other financiaal means to engineer with h CICOPA members, m CICOPA shouuld establish h a fund or o funding mechanism for the deveelopment of f our cooperative sector r in the worlld. This fund d should be started striictly as a secto oral fund, an nd could posssibly particippate in the d developmentt fund establlished by the e ICA in a seco ond stage, if d deemed app propriate.

4.

IDENTITY [COMMU UNICATIO ON, DATA MANAGE EMENT A AND STAN NDARD‐ SSETTING] “BUILD THE CO OOPERATIVE MESSAGE AND SSECURE THE COOPERATIVE IDE ENTITY”

4.1.

Commun nication

In CIICOPA’s com mments to the first draft of the Outlin ne for a Cooperative Deccade, commu unication was strongly und derlined as b being a fundaamental dim mension to be e developed in order to rreach out he outside world, w considering that the cooperaative movem ment has a mission tow wards the to th worlld as a wholle and not only o towardss its existingg members. In this line, CICOPA willl need to follo ow the core m messages lau unched in th e Blueprint ffor a Cooperrative Decadee in order to o create a uniteed message and common symbols.

CICO OPA will also need to thin nk about how w to better ccommunicate e with youngg people, in p particular by im mproving thee use of socia al media.

The coordination n of commun nication amoong various gglobal, regional and sub‐‐regional enttities and mbers should be substantially steppped up. The coverage e of commuunication sh hould be mem prom moted, as on ne of the key elements to be develo oped in national membeer federation ns and in future regional aand sub‐regio onal organis ations. Inforrmation shou uld be sharedd at all levelss in order ncourage intter‐cooperation. to en At th he same tim me, CICOPA sshould substtantially reinforce its colllaboration inn the commu unication field d with the ICA A and the oth her ICA sectooral organisa ations.

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CICO OPA websitees and socia al media acccounts should be substantially steppped up and d geared towaards communicating on, and within tthe framewo ork of, the co ooperative deecade.

CICO OPA’s globall news shoulld be pursueed and perfe ected as a regular disseemination instrument towaards the outside world. T The regional and sub‐reggional organisations shouuld share information with h CICOPA in o order to improve the disssemination o of global new ws.

The disseminatiion of good d practice sshould remaain another fundamenttal objective e of our communication work. The regional an d sub‐regional organisa ations shoul d participate in this proccess in order to collect be est practice sstories. It sho ould be done e, among othhers, by    

Feeding our websittes with textt and video p presentation of concrete cases.

Makingg a new docu umentary film m with casess around the e world.

Editingg a global besst practice boook.

Sharingg the direct experiencess of cooperaative and worker‐ownedd enterprise es on our social n networks (Fa acebook & Tw witter).

Data maanagement

4.2.

During this period, data on n members sshould be su ubstantially improved, w with precise e sectoral focu uses, by coun ntry, by con ntinent and w worldwide. The regional and sub‐reegional orga anisations shou uld participatte in the data collection work and feedback.

Interraction with other ICA sectoral s orgaanisations on the issue of data mannagement should be increeased in ordeer to allow fo or a single sttatistical systtem for coop peratives thrroughout the e world.

4.3.

Standard d setting

The beginning of this decade e should be dedicated to o setting standards for aartisans’ coop peratives and cooperativees of micro‐eentrepreneurrs and professsionals. In order o to com mplete this task t with the sufficient level of experrtise and leggitimacy, CIC COPA should d affiliate a few key coo operative fedeerations affiliiating artisan ns’ cooperatiives, but sho ould first define a few ba sic criteria to o affiliate them m.

5. LEGISLATIION [AND D PUBLIC P POLICIES] “ENSURE SUPPORTIIVE LEGAL FRAM MEWORKS FOR R COOPERATIV VE GROWTH”

Legisslation CICO OPA’s two exxisting set off standards ((for worker ccooperativess and social cooperatives) should be p promoted far more active ely for the puurpose of leggislation and public policyy.

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Th he voice of cooperatives sinn industry and d services

A firrst importantt organizatio on with whic h CICOPA sh hould step up p cooperatioon on the wo orker and sociaal cooperativve standardss is the ILO. A A strategic d debate should be establiished with th he ILO on the u utilization off these stand dards aroundd the world.

We sshould camp paign, togeth her with our members, to o have specific worker coooperative a and social coop perative legiislation (eith her as chaptters of gene eral legislatio on or speciffic laws) aro ound the worlld, taking sto ock of the most recent caases (Brazil aand hopefully Japan for w worker coop peratives, and France, Queebec, Urugua ay and Polandd for social ccooperatives).

A wo orking group p of legal exp perts from aamong our m member orga anisations shhould be esttablished, meeeting mainly o on line and tthrough telecconferencingg.

CICO OPA’s compa arative work in legislatioon relevant ffor worker and social coooperatives sshould be purssued, and sh hould include e a wider am mount of co ountries by the t middle oof the decad de, and a repo ort should bee published a at that time.

5.1.

Policies

CICO OPA should eengage eithe er directly orr in collaboraation with its members w with governm ments on 1 the C CICOPA Policcy Recommeendations Folllowing the IInternational Year of Coooperatives . Concrete follo ow up should d be done in this respect..

Publlic policies in n the field off employmennt should remain the nu umber one ppriority for CICOPA. A seco ond policy priority p should be comm munity servicces (or services of geneeral interestt, namely health, social serrvices, educa ation, the ennvironment, e energy production etc).

Policcies towards the youth sh hould also bee encouraged at all levelss.

CICO OPA’s relatio on with regio onal entities (the EU, Mercosur, Nafta, Asean, etcc.) should be e created or co onsolidated, wherever th hese exist.

Amo ong the interrnational orgganisations, ccooperation with the ILO O should rem ain the main n priority, and should focu us on legisla ation and poolicy, includ ding develop pment policiees, as well as social dialo ogue.

Follo owing the co onsolidation of relationss with the worker section of the ILO O (ACTRAV), CICOPA’s relattion with the t Internattional Tradee Union Confederation (ITUC) shoould be re‐‐initiated.

1

Policy R Recommendattions Following the Internattional Year of Cooperativess 2012: ww.cicopa.coo op/IMG/pdf/ccicopa_recom mmendations_ _en_v12.pdf http://ww

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Th he voice of cooperatives sinn industry and d services

CICOPA A representss 80.000 off industrial and servicce cooperatives providding 3 million jobs across the world d. Its full members are repre esentative organisatioons of pro oducers’ cooperaatives from different ssectors: connstruction, iindustrial p production, services off general interestt, transport, intellectuaal services, artisanal activities, he ealth, sociall care, etc. Many of those cooperativess are worke er cooperattives, name ely cooperatives wheree the members are the stafff of the enterprise, i.e., i workerr‐members. Because of o this, thoose enterprrises are characterized by a distinctive type of labbour relatio ons, called ““worker ow wnership”, d different from the one expeerienced by conventionnal employe ees or by se elf‐employeed. With the recent transforrmation of the world economy, industrial, artisan and d service coooperativess are no longer aa marginal p phenomeno on. A new a nd growingg typology o of cooperatiives represe ented by CICOPA A are social ccooperative es, namely cooperative es whose m mission is thhe delivery o of goods or servvices of geeneral inte erest. Num mbers have increased in both industrialissed and develop ping countries over reccent years. CICOPA cu urrently hass a total of 46 membe ers in 31 countriees, four of o which are a develoopment orgganisations. CICOPA has two regional organisaations: CECOP‐ CICOPA A Europe annd CICOPA A Americas.

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