APRIL 2018

Alliance discusses co-operatives and sustainable
development in the Asia-Pacific region
The 2018 Asia Pacific Co-operative Development Conference took place at the
end of February in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Organised by the ICA Asia Pacific team,
it was the culmination of three sub-regional development meetings held in
Jordan, the Philippines and Mongolia. Here, Mr Balasubramanian (Balu) Iyer
(regional director, (ICA-AP)) and Mr W. Lalith A. Peiris (chair of the National
Co-operative Council of Sri Lanka and director, ICA-AP), explore the crucial role
co-ops play in realising the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs).
q The conference
was held in Colombo,
Sri Lanka
In the run-up to 2030, the obvious question to ask
was: “What can we do differently now, from the
time of the Millennium Development Goals?”
One way was to augment the list of stakeholders
deemed necessary for the realisation of the SDGs.
An obvious choice was co-ops. As member-based
organisations, rooted in their communities, with
democratic structures, they have been recognised
as important stakeholders in the realisation of
Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development.
Co-ops can be formed within any sector. Beyond
the well-established agri and credit co-ops, they
provide funeral support, plumbing, social tourism,
taxis, and much more. One in every six people on
the planet is a co-operator. The top 300 co-ops and
mutuals report a turnover of US $2.16tn (£1.53tn).
And so, armed with 2.5 million enterprises
and 1.5 billion members, the global co-operative
movement provides an organic synergy between
co-ops and the realisation of the SDGs. As enshrined
in the 7th Co-operative Principle, Concern for
Community, co-operatives work for the sustainable
development of their communities through policies
approved by their members. It’s a well-established
idea: in 1992, the ICA Congress discussed
sustainable development as its main theme and
passed a declaration on the environment and
sustainable development.
Last month, the Asia-Pacific Co-operative
Development Conference (APCDC) looked at
how to build multi-stakeholder partnerships on
sustainable development. The APCDC is a strategic
dialogue on development policy, with the aim
of creating partnerships between co-operatives
and stakeholders.
The conference had sessions on:
• Eradicating poverty
• Building a more sustainable food system
• Improving access to basic goods and services
• Protecting the environment.
And there were working sessions on the three
Asia-Pacific strategic development priorities – the
SDGs, youth inclusion and exploring work and
ownership structures in co-ops.
The conference means it is a good time to look
back on the history of the Sri Lankan co-operative
movement. Its first co-operative society was
established in 1906 in the city of Kandy. Since
then, it has developed deep connections with the
marginalised communities and emerged as the
sole guardian of the poor.
Gender equality is given strong consideration
at various levels of the movement and enacted
through a range of policies and programmes.
Co-op by-laws have been amended to provide space
for women on the board and senior positions. The
National Cooperative Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL)
has taken the lead on this and encourages member
organisations to do the same.
With regard to the environment, Sri Lankan
co-ops have been working on conservation projects
for many years.
And co-operative federations such as SANASA
have pledged their commitment to the SDGs on
the coopsfor2030.coop website, set up by the
Alliance for co-ops to learn about the SDGs, make
commitments to them, and report their progress.
But their path to achieving the SDGs presents many
challenges: the enabling environment needs to
be improved, access to capital strengthened, and
the infrastructure systems for co-ops needs to be
improved on and modernised.
Co-operatives emerge from, and are grounded
in, the communities in which they operate.
They engage members from local communities
in creating enterprises. They make significant
contributions to the implementation of the SDGs
and the development of a sustainable society.
36 | APRIL 2018