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 […]
The Benefits of Women-Led Co-ops in Arab States
More than 1 billion people worldwide are members of co-operatives, and on first glance, that staggering fact seems to have no geographic bounds. There are an astounding number of co-operative members from countries as far-ranging as Singapore (where they make up half of the countrys population) to Germany (that counts a quarter of its population […]
Iran’s big co-operative plans
Six years ago, the Iranian Vegetable Oil Industry Association decided it was time to go into business co-operative business. Under its association framework it was not legally allowed to go into business, only to act as a collaborator between the private sector and the government in Iran. So, the association created The Iran Oilseeds […]
Iran Oilseeds & Vegetable Oil Processing Factories Cooperative (Farda Coop)
Farda Coop was established on 20 May 2006. It has 28 shareholders from vegetable oil factories in Iran that account for 93% of Iran’s vegetable oil industry. Farda provides all technical, financial needs and raw materials in which the shareholders need. 41% of Farda personnel are women. Farda also established a coop university, a transportation […]
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 […]
The kinship tradition
In the early 1970s the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern was really, really racist, says resident Sol Bellear, of the Bundjalung people, far north New South Wales coast. To receive medical care, you had to pay two dollars to attend the emergency department. If you were Aboriginal you might sit there for half the day and […]
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 […]