Buyan-Undral primary agricultural cooperative is the one of the largest member cooperatives of National Association of Mongolian Agricultural cooperatives. The Mongolian Government and Local Government have valued the activities of Buyan-Undral highly and granted many awards and premiums to this cooperative, including in 2000 Best cooperative award of National Association of Mongolian Agricultural cooperatives /NAMAC/, […]
Turning lemongrass into oil and co-operative profits
Lemongrass is a green, spiky grass which proliferates as ground vegetation in waist-high mounds. In some countries the herb is believed to guard against anxiety, in others to help with coughs. In the mountainous climes of Bhutan lemongrass grows wild. But as one of the kingdoms resident lemongrass experts, Karma Yanka, explains that paradoxically its people dont ingest […]
Powerful national co-operative movement looks to young to grow global movement
One in three Singaporean residents is a member of a co-operative, explains Dolly Goh. But when the lively chief executive of the Singapore National Co-operative Federation (SNCF) talks about her McDonalds strategy she is not only talking about the island nation.This federation has been quietly taking one of its concepts for 2012, the UN International […]
Another type of banking
A bank whose operations are as wide-ranging as those of Bank Rakyat can afford to change the way it does business. In 2003, 49 years after its foundation, Malaysias Bank Rakyat, one of Asias largest co-operative banks, embraced an operating system based on Shariah (Islamic legal) principles. Since then Bank Rakyat has been able to further extend its operations to the Malaysian islands of Sabah and Sarawak. Bank Rakyat is driven by […]
Salted Earth
Fifty years ago a massive lagoon lay next to the village of Toubab Dialow. Today a small puddle gathers in the rainy season, but, come September, the land is dry and barren once again. Changes in vegetation and soil have destroyed the lagoon and, along with it, the communitys fishing industry. A cooperative of women […]
Circle of love becomes circle of life
It is sometimes said that if women received the same training and opportunites as men in developing countries, that the number of people living in poverty could drop by as much as 150 million. In South African, the women are taking the situation into their own hands. In Tooseng village in the Limpopo province of […]
The Almería Agricultural Cooperative Model: Building successful economic and social communities
In 1955, the Andalucían province of Almería, in southeastern Spain, was a drought-ridden area with little infrastructure and a GDP per capita of less than half the national average. Most residents who had not already fled in search of better opportunities were merely subsisting. Today, it is the top Spanish fruit and vegetable growing area […]
CAJAMAR, Cajas Rurales Unidas
Cajamar Caja Rural (soon to change to Cajas Rurales Unidas), is a credit cooperative bank formed by the merging of the credit cooperatives (cajas rurales) of Andalucía (Almería and Málaga in 2000), Murcia (Campo de Cartagena in 1989), Madrid (Grumeco in 2000), Castilla y León (Caja Rural del Duero in 2007), Baleares (Caixa Rural de […]
Co-operative empowerment in the red light district
1849 – San Francisco heaved with gold-seeking miners and the sailors that had transported them into the Bay from as far away as Australia. The Barbary Coast, the town’s red light district with its pimps, petty thieves and dance halls, drew these travellers in. 1997 – the historic Barbary Coast still plays home to the […]
Turning waste fruit into a profitable business
In the small low-income community of Toisapu, in the Maluku islands, nutmeg used to be seen as a waste fruit. Local villagers would use the nutmeg seed and its mesh, and would throw away the outer cover or the fruit itself. That all changed in 2010, when the Sejuk Women Cooperative came up with the […]