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CICOPA, on a close collaboration with the ICA Asia-Pacific, will launch in May 2018 a joint research initiative on “Exploring Work & Ownership in Cooperatives”. The research main objective is to better understand the diversity of cooperative models in the industry and service sector for the Asia-Pacific region. The initiative is now launching a call for partners, and CICOPA would like to invite its members from the Asia-Pacific region to participate.

IHCO, the International Health Cooperative Organisation, published its “Cooperative Health Report 2018”  with EURICSE, the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises. The report unveils what is the contribution of cooperatives to the global health and why cooperatives are well-equipped with competitive advantages for the health sector.

“The question of the future of work is above all a question of power and ownership. It is a question the cooperative movement seeks practical answers for, every day, in neighbourhoods, cities and regions”. An Opinion by Sion Whellens, Vice-president of CECOP.

Platform cooperatives are online businesses jointly-owned and -managed by their members using a protocol, website or mobile application to facilitate the sale of goods and services. Based on cooperative principles and values, they are emerging as viable alternatives to the standard internet business model.

The Parliament of Uganda recognized the importance of cooperatives as a key actor to attain social economic transformation in the country. A budget for “the revival of cooperatives” should be allocated in 2018/2019.

CICOPA officially counts this week a new associate member from India. SEWA Federation strives to re-create itself as a professionally-run service provider, equipped to bring low-cost, high quality advisory and business services to poor women in Gujarat State’s cooperative movement.

In a new study entitled “Sharing Wealth with Those Who Create It”, OXFAM recommends, among other things, encouraging “business models that promote more equitable benefits, including co-ops and employee participation in corporate governance and supply chains. “

The first major result from the agreement between the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation (CWCF) and la Confédération générale des SCOPs in France, the world leaders in worker co-op business succession, is the new website, www.transfertcoop.com.

On 15 November, CICOPA, the International Co-operative Alliance’s sectorial organisation for industry and services, has organised in Kuala Lumpur a workshop called “The future of work is ours!”, one of the key actions under the ongoing WE OWN IT! campaign on youth co-operative entrepreneurship.

In 2004 in the city of Mar del Plata, in the province of Buenos Aires, a program on Domiciliary Care was created, covering the subject of elderly, disabled and chronically ill. Something new for the Argentinian society: to think about the elderly and the representation of old age.

Hosting 35 cooperators from 9 different countries (Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Wales, United States, Japan, Sri Lanka) with a focus on communication, social farming and management, the 2017 edition confirmed the International School as a unique place of dialogue and mutual learning.

The “Fuori di Zucca” social farm was created in 2005 in Aversa, between Caserta and Naples, as a result of the vocation and the aspirations of the members of the “Un fiore per la vita” Cooperative to continue the historic rural tradition of Campania Felix. The idea was to introduce modern farming methods and new productive activities to restore dignity and value to people through the creation of a social economy, to promote respect for the environment and to develop people’s awareness and consumption of local products.