Two new country reports available in the Cooperative Legal Framework Analysis in The Americas
The International Cooperative Alliance is currently implementing an analysis of cooperative legal frameworks in the 109 countries in which its 310 member organizations are distributed.
Cooperative legal frameworks differ from country to country, in some legal systems cooperatives benefit from regulations that recognize their specificities and ensure a level playing field with other types of commercial organizations while in other countries the legislation lacks a specific legal framework for cooperatives or if it exists, it is detrimental to the interests of cooperatives, thus undermining the uniqueness of the model and preventing its development and sustainability.
In 2016, the International Cooperative Alliance and the European Commission signed an international cooperation agreement which is implemented through the program “Cooperatives in development: people centered businesses, in action”#COOPS4DEV🌎; This program establishes 8 lines of action: institutional strengthening, visibility and communications, cooperative networking, capacity building for member organizations, knowledge management, project implementation, political dialogue and research.
Under the research line of action, the International Cooperative Alliance is currently implementing an analysis of cooperative legal frameworks in the 109 countries in which its 310 member organizations are distributed.
During the month of April, the reports on cooperative legal frameworks for Jamaica and Saint Kitts & Nevis were completed, drafted by the legal experts John Bassie and Dorwin Manzano respectively; these countries join the list of countries with reports already completed and available online: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
The reports for The United States of America and Haiti are in the revision stage, while for Honduras the legal expert has already started to draft the report and for Curaçao the national legal expert is being selected.
All completed national reports are available on the website https://coops4dev.coop/en/c4d-americas.