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Zvi
Galor
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Expert in cooperative development
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coopgalor.com
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last update: December 16th 2002
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The cooperative
is probably one of the only means by which poor individuals can
escape their poverty and go on to develop themselves, their families,
and their countries.
Cooperative Management and
Financial
Management:
Cooperative
belongs to its members.
Cooperative renders to its members the best possible service at the
lowest possible cost.
These two very important characteristics are not part of most
cooperatives in the world.
The approach to cooperative development I bring puts emphasize on
these two major components of what is a cooperative.
Cooperative Legislation:
One of the
problems of most cooperatives worldwide is that the misunderstanding
of what real cooperatives are, on one hand side, and the reticence of
many to a move forward in turning their cooperatives into real ones,
on the other hand, is the fact that cooperative legislation in most
countries represent a wrong approach of what is a cooperative.
There are some
countries where cooperative legislation is moving towards the right
direction according to the new approach brought here.
Micro-Credit and Real
Saving and Credit Cooperatives
(SACCO):
1. The
MicroCredit enterprise belongs to its members, and provides them the
best possible service at the lowest possible cost.
2. The
MicroCredit enterprise allows its members-owners to save their money
at a competitive rate of interest, the highest possible one. A rate
of interest which takes into consideration the rate of annual
inflation in the given country where this enterprise exists, as well
as to be higher than that offered by any other financial institution
for fixed deposits..
It allows them to
obtain credit when necessary, at a competitive rate of interest, the
lowest possible one.
Self-Owned Economic Common
Enterprises
(S.E.CO):
The members are
the full ownership of the cooperative. Each member is the owner of
his own equal share in the cooperativeís total assets, and
the
total assets of the members are equivalent to the total assets of the
cooperative. Each member owns an equivalent, single share of the
cooperative ñ no more and no less, and he or she acquires
this
share through cash payments or through credit provided to him by the
cooperative itself.
The number of
shares is exactly the same as the number of the
cooperativeís
members.
Non-Agricultural
Employment in Rural Areas
(N.A.E.):
Development of
rural areas should comprises the introduction of the Non-Agricultural
Employment (N.A.E.) in the process of the national policy of the
development of the rural areas.
The traditional
population is forced, in many cases, to quit its rural communities,
where almost no development takes place, and to migrate to urban
areas, where no employment is guarantee, and as consequence, they are
integrated into the marginal part of their societies.
The Essential Triangle of
Production
(E.T.P.):
The Essential
Triangle of Production, comprises the Credit, the Supply of Inputs
and the Marketing, all these three elements around the
Production.
A project which
is unable to close the three sides of the triangle into one, has a
great risk to fail.
Poor people are
unable to close by themselves the triangle. One of the ways poor
people may get out of their poverty is the cooperative way, when a
group of poor, would collaborate together to create a very simple
Multi-Purpose cooperative, one which will comprise the following
functions: Production, Saving and Credit, Supply of Inputs and
Marketing
Non-Bargaining Activities
of Trade
Unions:
Trade Unions in
most countries are concentrate in the classical task: defending the
interest of their members, mostly wage-earners. It is called as well
the Bargaining Activities of Trade Unions.
This way is
rather limited in its ability to bring positive results to members.
The employers, the biggest is the government, are not tending to
improve the sort of the employees. When the workers get anything,
partly, it goes to income tax authorities. What is left to the
wage-earner is always less than what they have expected to
get.
Another option is
the Non-Bargaining Activities of Trade Unions. The Trade unions
themselves create Economic and Social Enterprises whose role is to
serve the members of the Union at the best possible way, and at the
lowest possible cost.