![](_themes/nature/narule.gif)
Cooperatives and Development - Action speaks louder than words
Ignace Pollet and Patrick Develtere, IRU Courier 1/04
Internationale Raiffeisen Union
Printer friendly versions
74kb doc,
57kb pdf.
![](_themes/nature/narule.gif)
This article is based upon a survey report - Development Co-operation: How
Cooperatives Cope by Pollet and Develtere. The work was jointly commissioned by
the Belgian Cera Foundation and the
Belgian Raiffeisen Foundation
(BRS) who
contracted the Higher Institute of Labour Studies (a research institute attached
to the Catholic University of Leuven) to carry out a survey among large
cooperatives and international institutions (with cooperative-oriented
programmes). The survey was undertaken in summer 2003 and provides an up-to-date
and representative picture of North-South coop-to-coop assistance.
The survey reveals that the tools used by many organisations for their
development work are also very much linked to their cooperative origins and
background. It revealed that technical assistance remains the most important
development instrument used by agencies actively involved in the creation of
favourable institutional and legal frameworks for cooperative development in
southern countries. However, in recent years many cooperative agencies have been
instrumental in creating trading and business linkages between northern and
southern cooperatives. Quality-wise, cooperatives are spearheading many of these
trading and business development activities. The report concludes by suggesting
that the cooperative movement and its associated institutions need to greatly
enhance the visibility of the cooperative model for development.
![](_themes/nature/narule.gif)