CICOPA and ICA-AP Meeting in Sri Lanka on Building a Worker Cooperative Network in the Region

The Asia-Pacific Cooperative Development Conference (APCDC) was organized on the theme “Building Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships on Sustainable Development” in Colombo (Sri Lanka) from 27-28 Feb 2018. It was co-organized by the International Cooperative Alliance – Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP), ICA-EU Partnership on Cooperatives in Development: People Centered Businesses in Action (#coops4dev) and the Sri Lankan cooperative movement led by the National Cooperative Council, Consumer Cooperative Federation, SANASA Federation, Kotikawatta Thrift & Credit Cooperative and National Institute of Cooperative Development. The Conference was a strategic dialogue among stakeholders on development policy, which was aimed to create structured exchange and development partnerships among cooperatives and stakeholders in the pursuit of Sustainable Development.

CICOPA members were present at the conference. Mr. Kishor Kumar T K from ULCCS, India and Mr. Osamu Nakano from Japanese Workers’ Co-operative Union (JWCU) together with Hyungsik Eum, data analyst of CICOPA shared worker cooperatives’ experiences and contributions concerning the pursuit of Sustainable Development. During the working sessions, a discussion group dedicated to the AP Strategic Priority on ‘Work & Ownership structures in Co-operatives’ was organized where topics around worker cooperatives and producer cooperatives in industrial and service sectors were discussed in the group.

The joint-research project (under the ICA-EU Partnership) between ICA-AP and CICOPA on ‘Work & Ownership Structures in Asia Pacific’ that will include a mapping of cooperative actors in industrial and service sectors, as well as legal frames analysis of select countries and contexts in the Asia Pacific, was also discussed with concerned stakeholders from India, Australia, Japan and Philippines. It is expected that CICOPA members in the region and other cooperative movements would join this project in order to conduct a collaborative & participatory action-research for producing a common conceptual framework of cooperatives in industrial and service sectors in the Asia-Pacific region.

Further readings:

• ICA: Asia-Pacific Co-operative Development Conference held in Colombo, Sri Lanka
• ILO: ILO’s participation in the 1st Asia-Pacific Cooperative Development Conference