Our civil society and cooperatives : cooperative Institutions as true contributive to the enrichment of our civil society.
- New Delhi International Cooperative Alliance 1994
- 55 p.
Cooperative institutions are unique institutions in the sense that these happen to be the socio-economic institutions which are created by the members on their free will and to meet their own needs - social and economic - through democratic means and by applying appropriate management techniques and in accordance with the Principles of Cooperation. All over the world for more than 150 years these institutions have been performing their tasks well in all conceivable sectors of economy. In many countries cooperative enterprises had demonstrated commendable achievements by providing efficient economic and social services. The roles played by cooperative leaders were courageous, full of high morals, and with positive attitudes towards the betterment of members. They were able to give their best to the building and promotion of cooperative enterprises,
Of late, there has been a tremendous growth in the number of cooperatives and cooperative membership besides the volumes of business transacted by them. They have become large estate-owners, big-time employers and large business operators. Many of the cooperatives have highly qualified professionals. Within the Movement there are well-known thinkers and ideologists. However, during our recent times, according to the discussions which had taken place within the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), it has been found that some of the values which were highly cherished by the former leaders have suffered a set back, the Principles of Cooperation have been distorted or perhaps misunder stood and misrepresented, and the governments have gradually taken over the management controls of cooperative institutions, especially more in the develop ing world. Instead of performing the role of a guide, friend and philosopher of the Cooperative Movement, the government has turned to be the 'masters' of the Movement. Already during the '60s the Principles of Cooperation had to be revised to keep in line with the changing situations of our modern times. A during the last couple of years intensive discussions have been going on around Again, the world on defining Cooperative Values and suggesting a review or revision of Principles of Cooperation. Cooperative thought, cooperative way of life and cooperative way of doing business have been undergoing a change with times The Movement has thus shown its dynamism and its willingness to adapt to changed environments. The 100 years old history of the International Cooperative Alliance bears an ample testimony to this dynamism.
Looking at the current problems faced by the Cooperative Movement worldwide and especially in the Third World, the most urgent tasks are to improve the quality of leadership, management leaders, and enhancing a greater collaboration with the governments with a view to achieve harmony - not to perpetuate conflicts There is a need now to provide for education and training of leaders, providing them with some models of Conduct/Ethics so that they achieve a higher degree of accountability and transparency in their work and in their relations with their cooperatives. They have to be more member-oriented rather than being self centered.
"Cooperatives fail because their leadership is of poor quality and/or the management is incompetent and ill-trained. Cooperatives perform poorly be cause of constant interference by petty bureaucrats who seek pecuniary and other gains and politicians who use the cooperative as a pawn in the chessboard of their power games. Whenever we talk about the failure of cooperatives we generally refer basically to the failure of cooperative values". Efficiently run cooperative institutions represent the quality of members and their leaders. They also represent the quality of our human society - our civil society. We need a re emergence of a reformed civil …