Robb on Cooperation

Could cooperatives do better in New Zealand?

Posted by Alan Robb on 29 September 2009 | 0 Comments

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As I reflect on cooperative activities around the world I get an uneasy feeling that New Zealand cooperatives and their members could really be more committed to cooperative principles and values.

There’s no doubt that kiwi co-ops can be proud of the way they have cooperated in the past. An example that springs to mind was the combined effort and financial support – through the NZ Cooperatives Association – for the drafting of the Cooperative Companies Act.

Without the unstinting efforts of cooperators working together we would not have had an act designed by cooperators for cooperatives which has proven to be very workable.

A second example was the way in which cooperators here made strong submissions to the accounting standard setters on the unrealistic nature of the international accounting standard affecting debt and equity instruments.

The standard setters were left in no doubt that standards designed for investor-owned companies can be quite inappropriate for cooperatives (and other types of entities).

But both those examples were responses to crises or unusual events.

What do cooperatives do on a regular basis to advance the case for cooperatives? Let me tell you two of the things that cooperatives do elsewhere.

Cooperatives provide funding to help communities form new cooperatives. In the UK recently, over £1 million was raised by Cooperative & Community Finance to fund the growth of new cooperatives.

The share issue was supported by the Cooperative Group and other retail cooperative societies as well as investors. Take a look at www.icof.co.uk for more details.

The USA has a number of foundations or funds which exist to develop new cooperatives. Two are the Cooperative Development Foundation (www.cdf.coop) and the upper Midwest’s Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund (www.ncdf.coop).

This could be something that the Association could champion – all it needs is for one or two co-op boards to say “We’ll support that because we are committed to growing new co-ops.”

Cooperatives support each other by using their services wherever possible. As Edgar Parnell puts it in Reinventing Cooperation – the challenge of the 21st century:

“It was not very long after the first primary level cooperatives were successfully established that those involved hit upon the idea that if individuals benefited from cooperation, then cooperatives working together could see those benefits multiply.”

In Spain, through Mondragon, cooperatives can access cooperative insurance services, cooperative banking and financial services, cooperative education and training etc.. The evidence shows clearly that when cooperatives support other cooperatives all benefit.

● How many New Zealand cooperatives have a policy of treating other cooperatives and mutuals as a preferred supplier?

● Are directors and staff encouraged to use a taxi co-op for travel to and from an airport?

● Does your co-op place its insurance with a mutual insurance company?

● Do you use the services of mutual financial organisations?

We all should, if we are truly committed to cooperative principles and values.

– from the June/July 2008 Cooperatives News