Bwongyera Fish Farmers and Pond Constructors Coop is a youth cooperative in western Uganda. Because of rampant unemployment the youth took construction of fish ponds as a way of earning a living. Later they discovered that they could also use the excavated soils to make bricks for sale and to construct their own houses. The […]
Trade School
Trade School is a self-organized learning platform that connects students to receive instruction from teachers in exchange for barter items that the teacher requests. The Trade School network is made up of self-organized barter-for-knowledge schools across the world. It started in 2010 with a small group of friends in New York and spread to Virginia […]
Co-operatives key to Iran’s economy
Iran has a plan. It wants to expand its co-operative sector to account for 25 per cent of GDP. This is no small task. It would represent a five-fold lift in contribution from the co-operative sector to the national economy from the five per cent of GDP it already accounts for. At the head of […]
Iran Central Chamber of Commerce (Iran Central Chamber of Cooperatives)
By virtue of the Article 57 of national cooperative law, Iran Central Chamber of Cooperatives was established in Tehran as the national apex non-governmental cooperative organization and its branches in all Iranian provinces. ICCs scope of authorities is the same as Irans Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines (ICCIM), but in the cooperative sector. It’s […]
Social housing policy in Australia
In November last year we were commissioned by the Community Housing Federation Victoria to investigate and document the economic, social and psychological benefits of living in co-operative rental housing (rather than in what is almost the norm in Australia privately owned or rented dwellings). A summary of the report is available including recommendations which were […]
From Sea to Desert: Coops Band together to Share Knowledge and Customers
In 1979 One Village One Product (OVOP) movement started in Oita Prefecture, Japan. The goal was simple: to unite communities around the creation of a specific good and facilitate larger markets for those goods. The model was successful. From shitake mushrooms to tourist filled hot springs, OVOP fostered businesses and realized economic growth. As OVOPs […]
Project for Promotion of Artisanal Activities through One Village One Product (OVOP) Programme
Project OVOP aims to establish a model allowing local artisans to enhance their income generating activities through value addition of local resources. Launched in March 2011 as a technical cooperation project of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), with the Direction of Craft Industry of Senegal assuming OVOP Secretariat, Project OVOP is implemented in Fatick […]
Sardica Logistica Multiservice
The Sardica Multiservice Logistics is active in the commercial and business services, including import / export, new technologies (energy, water, environment).
Cheese, Soccer Balls and Sweaters: Worth Their Salt
Only a generation ago a single salt mine offered the vast majority of job opportunities for the people of Salinas de Guaranda, Ecuador. This salt mine was not a cooperative. It did not offer collective governance to the workers. Owned by a single man, the workers received low wages in unsafe conditions with no hope […]
Supporting Quebec’s Strong Cooperative Society
Did you know that over a third of all the maple syrup consumed in the world is marketed by cooperatives in Quebec? The Canadian province is a hotspot for cooperatives, with a remarkably developed cooperative sector, both in terms of numbers and diversity. Cooperatives play leading roles in industries like financial services, insurance, agriculture, food, […]