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Dar advocates strong cooperatives in African states
2007-10-06 08:56:04
By Michael Haonga
Tanzania has called on African countries to establish effective cooperatives with a view to improving the lives of their people.
The appeal was made on Wednesday in Dar es Salaam by Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives minister Stephen Wassira at the launch of Coop Africa Programme.
The programme was launched jointly by the International Labour Organisations (ILO), the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the Cooperative College of the United Kingdom.
Others were the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC).
He said cooperatives in Africa had a potential to make a difference in the livelihoods of many people through the provision of decent work and social protection for vulnerable groups.
`I believe that cooperatives in Africa have the potential to make a difference in the livelihoods of many people,` Wassira said.
In her remarks at the event, ILO regional director for Africa Regina Amad-Njoku said cooperative principles and values were central in the search for solutions for the burning problems of today and tomorrow in creating employment and fighting against poverty in the quest for a fairer globalisation.
Quoting words of ILO director general Juan Somavia she said, `Work is more than income. It is dignity, a source of self-worth and of family stability. It is a source of peace in the community and is at the heart of the economic, political and social concerns of people`.
The ILO Africa regional director cautioned, `If we permit inequality to grow, both between and within nations, peace and stability will be under threat.`
As one way out of the problem, she called for evolving unique organizational forms of cooperatives which combine the characteristics of an enterprise with those of an association.
She said despite economic structural adjustments of the 1990s creating economic growth in many parts of the continent, they had widened the gap between the rich and the poor in many African countries.
`It has become obvious that a purely profit-oriented economy, which considers shareholder value as the sole indicator of success, cannot solve the burning problems of our society,` she said.
Hence, she called for thrust to be directed at cooperative societies like enterprises that enable creation of opportunities, protection and empowerment at the same time.
`These three elements, opportunity, protection and empowerment, are the principal ingredients of any poverty reduction strategy,`she noted.
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