Momentum given to worker and production cooperatives in Dominican Republic

In the framework of the fifth financial convention of Dominican cooperativism and the first international financial convention, to which the Andalusian School of Social Economy and CICOPA’s president Manuel Mariscal participated, Conacoop has assured that financial cooperatives will offer resources in order to promote entrepreneurial spirit and the creation of worker and production cooperatives. Conacoop, declared that “it is crucial to help production and worker cooperatives because until now consumer cooperatives have been privileged”

Mariscal asked the participants to think about the need to intercooperate: “inter-cooperation would not only strengthen our solidarity but also make us stronger. Crises are the crossing path between what is already dying and what desires to be born. We have to make sure that our opinions on enterprises and economy come out of this crisis even stronger”.

This meeting, organized around the central theme of ‘savings and credit cooperativism as a stimulating tool for associated work’ brought together a total of 639 participants that came from 355 national cooperatives, as well as representatives from Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Cuba and Spain.

The Andalusian social economy as an example

Before the start of this activity, it is important to note that the representatives and leaders of cooperativism in the Dominican Republic took part in numerous institutional meetings and visits of cooperatives in Andalusia, organized by the Andalusian School of Social Economy from the 9th to the 15th of April, 2015.

The School keeps a close-knit relationship, intensified over the last few years, with Conacoop, and both organizations have carried out projects together on collective entrepreneurial spirit, training and executive training, and at the same time have helped in the training of youths and women.