About

The Programme

This 3 year project, funded by the Department for International Development, aims to support and strengthen the contribution that co-operatives make to poverty reduction globally.

This will be achieved in the following ways:

• Undertaking and stimulating research.

• Developing evidence-based policy inputs.

• Publications.

• Providing capacity building support to colleges and other institutions in Africa.

• Providing technical support, especially to the African co-operative development sector.

Co-operative Revival

In recent years, there has been a huge research gap about co-operatives and many government and non-governmental agencies have some outdated views of co-operatives. At the same time, a global revival of co-operatives is occurring and there is an increasing amount of interest in how they can help to tackle poverty and promote development.

The scope and scale of the sector remains globally significant, with a membership of over 800 million and an estimated three billion people deriving some support for their livelihoods from co-operatives. This renewed emphasis on co-operative identity and shared values now provides a central platform for the global renewal and growth of co-operatives, which blend a commercial and a values-led approach that is very much in tune with a business agenda increasingly influenced by social and environmental concerns.

Research and Development

As co-operatives have been re-asserting themselves as private sector players, they have begun to attract interest from governments, development agencies and policy makers. However the growth of co-operatives is hampered by the absence of adequate research with which to inform effective and appropriate development policy interventions.

The Co-operatives for Development Programme therefore seeks to address this research deficit and make a timely and innovative contribution to support International Development projects and policy making, and contribute to better leverage of co-operatives for poverty reduction.

The research team also provides a focal point for enquiries regarding co-operative development both from within and outside the UK and frequently deals with a range of requests for information or advice.

The project builds on the Co-operative College’s years of experience working on international co-operative development.

Although we provide training to co-operatives, please note that we are no longer a campus college and we are therefore unfortunately unable to accept full-time students.