Co-operatives offer opportunity

PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba is concerned about the slow pace of growth in membership of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) in Africa.

At a recent conference of the Regional ICA branch, hosted in Namibia last week, Pohamba said that although the alliance was formed in the 1960’s, membership only stands at 21 institutions from 14 countries. He asked that the matter be taken up in the African union in ‘order to sensitize’ AU countries of the important initiative. ‘We believe that membership of ICA Africa will serve as a springboard for African countries to learn from each other’, he said.Pohamba noted that co-operatives ‘represent an important factor for economic and social development – because they contribute to the eradication of poverty through employment creation and income generation’.According to the president, the ‘cooperative movement brings together over 1 billion people around the world … the movement contributes to the livelihoods of over 3 billion people’. In Namibia, the movement is ‘gaining momentum’ the President said. Co-operatives have sprung up in the livestock marketing, seed production, savings and credits, arts and crafts, indigenous plants processing, tourism and small scale farming sectors, amongst others.This month, the African ICA meeting was conducted to review the implementation and progress on recommendations made at the 9th African ICA ministerial conference held in October 2009.