Researching Co-operatives Gallery
Co-operative Colleges
The Co-operative College works with a number of other colleges in Africa, including Leshoto, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Botswana and Swaziland and Uganda. Below are pictures from visits to some of these colleges.
Visits to The Co-operative College UK
The College often hosts international visitors, who come to learn more about the UK co-operative movement and the work that we do. Visitors are always keen to go to visit the museum of the first succesful consumer co-operative in Rochdale.
Karagwe Coffee Co-operative
The Karagwe Coffee Co-operative is in Tanzania, and College Associates visited during a research trip in 2009.
Kilimanjaro Native Coffee Union
The Kilimanjaro Native Coffee Union was a co-operative founded in the 1950s, for marketing coffee grown by farmers living on the fertile slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The KNCU still exists today, and sells some of its coffee to the Fairtrade market.
Kuapa Kokoo
Kuapa Kokoo has become a very famous co-operative, as a supplier for companies including Divine Chocolate, The Co-operative and Body shop. Samantha Lacey, a researcher for Co-operatives for Development, attended the 2008 AGM.
Launch of Co-op Africa
Mamsera Coffee Co-operative, Tanzania
Village Savings and Loans
Village Savings and Loans are member-based, democratically run village banks, which provide financial services to members who otherwise may not be able to access them. Samantha Lacey went to visit a Village Savings and Loans group during a research trip to Kenya.
Researching the role of co-operatives in community natural resource management
Samantha Lacey recently spent two weeks in Kenya and Tanzania, researching how formal and informal groups of people have come together to tackle the environmental challenges they face. Across Tanzania and Kenya, village committees have been set up to protect a local spring or reservoir and ensure everyone gets fair access to the little water that is available. In some cases, these groups have been so successful that the local farmers have started to produce excess crops and are now looking for ways to get them to market, for example by forming a marketing co-operative. Some have also set up savings and credit co-operatives. Existing co-operatives have also started to use their infrastructure and capital to train their farmers in sustainable farming methods that are more resilient to changing climate conditions. Samantha’s research will be published by Summer 2010.
Botswana workshop 2009
Researching Co-operatives with the Swedish Co-operative Centre, Kenya
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