A collaborative program of the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) Foundation, the Future Organic Farmer Grant Fund is committed to teaching and promoting organics among new and upcoming farmers. The grant supports education programs for students interested in sustainable agriculture nationwide, and in an era of aging farmers, targeting the youth is crucial.
“Telecommunications: The Linchpin for Smart Grid Success,” an article published today by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) Cooperative Research Network (CRN), offers lessons from the experiences of six cooperatives that upgraded their telecommunications infrastructure to support new smart grid applications.
As part of the answer to the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda, CICOPA is publishing the results of the study entitled “Cooperatives as Builders of Sustainable Development”, showing the state-of-the-art of worker, social and artisans’ cooperatives in contributing to sustainable development.
On 15th July, Cooperatives Europe was invited to speak at an open dialogue event on the new role of the private sector in development. The event took place within the Informal Meeting of EU Development Ministers organised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the EU Commission under the Italian Presidency of the EU Commission on 14th and 15th July in Florence, Italy.
From June 16th – 19th, co-operators from across Canada convened in Moncton, New Brunswick to take part in the 2014 Congress. The Congress marked a significant event in Canadian co-operative history: The inaugural Annual General Meeting of Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada (CMC).
On Thursday, June 26th the New York City Council will vote to approve the city’s annual budget, which contains a $1.2 million initiative to fund the development of worker cooperatives.
Co-operators pay tribute to Ian MacPherson, Canada’s co-operative historian, author, educator and advocate who passed away on past November (Anca Voinea)
From 24th to 27th June, the regional seminar for Latin America of the Policy Forum in Development took place in Lima, which was organised by the EU Commission (DG DevCo) together with several Latin American civil society organisations (CSOs). The meeting aimed to bring EU development policies, programs and financial mechanisms closer to the civil society actors of the region with open discussions between institutions and CSOs.
International Co-operative Alliance press release on the occasion of International Day of Cooperatives - 5th July 2014
In his message, Guy Ryder, Director-General of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO), noted that cooperatives reach many of the poor and excluded who are out of reach from the government, and from conventional markets for goods and services, such as smallholder farmers.
National Cooperative Bank (NCB), a leading financial institution dedicated to providing banking solutions to cooperatives nationwide has ranked as #5 in mid-sized companies on The Washington Post Top Workplaces list.
Monique Leroux, invites you to the 2014 International Summit of Cooperatives. Discover why you should attend the Summit! Mark your calendar: October 6 to 9, 2014 in Quebec City. (International Summit of Cooperatives)
According to news published by Bloomberg last week the list of the world’s strongest banks has cooperatives in the top three organizations listed. The Desjardins Group, Canada, and the Norinchukin Bank, Japan, in joint second place.
Green City Growers - The Evergreen Cooperatives are a connected group of worker-owned cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio committed to local, worker-owned job creation; sustainable, green and democratic workplaces; and community economic development (Workplace Democracy)
An amendment including cooperatives was approved this week to the “proposed conclusions” on transitions from the informal to the formal economy. This is the first step and this item will be dealt with at the current session and at the 104th Session of the Conference to be held in 2015, hopefully with the publication of a Recommendation.
A Toolkit to encourage more organisations to complete their Co-operative Identity with a .coop domain and the Co-operative Marque has been launched by Domains.coop this week. The Toolkit includes a downloadable a poster, video tutorials, editorial, buttons for your website and newsletters and a multi-lingual banner, all designed for use in member communications. To date more than 550 co-ops in 67 countries have the Marque and there are over 6000 .coop registrations in 74 countries.
One of the main speakers at the II International Summit of Cooperatives 2014 will be Robert J. Schiller. He will focus on the current state of the global economy, as part of the first conference of the Summit on 7th October.
An agreement signed between the Interamerican Institute of Cooperation for Agriculture (IICA) and Cooperatives of the Americas is designed to promote the participation of producers in the region’s agricultural value chains and markets.
That was the message Dame Pauline Green, president of the International Cooperative Alliance, had for hundreds of representatives of the co-op community during the 4th Annual Cooperative Issues Forum at Washington, D.C.’s National Press Club last week.
This conference was held to bring together researches and practitioners who study co-operative impact and performance in order to elevate the understanding and use of measurement tools to better describe co-operative impact. Cooperatives of the Americas presented its view on Social Responsibility and Cooperative Social Audit.
The Guardian presented an article about university students are teaming up to take on the private rental market with a fairer solution to student housing
Expocoop 2014 was defined as “one of the main windows for cooperatives worldwide”. Its opening session gathered more than 1,000 people from 15 countries, representatives form all the Brazilian regions and authorities from the International Cooperative Alliance.
One of the five strategic areas that the International Co-operative Alliance identified as needing a game-changing strategy in order to achieve the goals of the Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade is Capital. The International Cooperative Alliance has established a Commission on Co-operative Capital, which began its work at our Global Conference in Cape Town, South Africa last November, is about to launch a high-level survey of co-operative capital.
At the end of 2013, Spain was able to create 23% more worker cooperatives than in the previous year. The number of cooperatives created in 2013 (both worker cooperatives and cooperatives from other sectors) was 1,166. Only 216 were originated in other sectors other than worker cooperatives, which clearly shows the importance of this sector in the country.
Melissa Hoover, Executive Director of United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) talked in a recent interview by Democracy Collaborative about the tremendous opportunities found in converting existing businesses to worker cooperative enterprises.
Co-operatives from 67 countries have applied for the marque to be used as a visual identity – with many opting for a .coop domain too. The International Co¬-operative Alliance developed the global identity for co¬-operatives to align with, which alongside the .coop domain creates a collective ¬¬identity.
Organic 3.0 – the future of organic – is on the agenda at BIOFACH 2014. 1.9 million certified organic farmers in 164 countries on 37.5 million hectares and a global market for organic food of 63.8 billion US dollars is what the organic movement achieved up to the year 2012. The global trend remains positive, but the ambitions of the organic movement go far beyond the present uptake.
Since joining the National Cooperative Bank in 1980, Barry Silver has been an unstoppable force within the bank and industry in the development of cooperative programs. A walking educational resource, he is renowned for finding new and innovative ideas that benefit the cooperative community. Over the past 34 years, he has helped thousands of cooperatives obtain financing to succeed in business.
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said on Monday, March 31, 2014 that democracy in Latin America is in a good shape compared with its recent past, but warned that it still suffers from shortcomings and challenges remain, during a keynote address he delivered at the Universidad Central de Chile in Santiago to mark the beginning of the 2014 academic year.
Barry Silver and Martin Lowery will receive the cooperative community’s highest honor, and join a select group of individuals who have been recognized for their dedication to fostering cooperative enterprises worldwide.
ICA-Americas sends its warmest greeting to its member organizations who are celebrating their anniversaries in July 2014.
Global Communities (GC) was founded on 30 July 1952 and thus, it is celebrating its 62 anniversary.
Banco Popular y de Desarrollo Comunal (BPDC) was founded on 11 July 1969 and thus, it is celebrating its 45 anniversary.
Confederación Guatemalteca de Federaciones Cooperativas (CONFECOOP) was founded on 14 July 1979 and thus, it is celebrating its 35 anniversary.
Instituto Panameño Autónomo Cooperativo (IPACOOP) was founded on 21 July 1980 and thus, it is celebrating its 34 anniversary.
Natucapri (Brasil)
An innovative idea, the production of handmade soaps from goat milk through a cooperative, changed the social and economic reality of a group of women in a small village of the Brazilian state of Alagoas. Subtitled in English
Cooperatives worldwide have nearly 1,000 million members and generate 100 million jobs, 20% more than multinational companies (2012)
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