International Links

Sally Hartley, who is doing research for the Co-operative College in Uganda, reports on youth co-operatives in the country.

Students from the Co-operative College of Swaziland first came up with the idea of starting a youth co-operative in 2008 as the co-operative movement was deteriorating, with multi-purpose and consumer co-operatives dormant and inefficient. There was a high unemployment rate amongst young people, plus ageing membership in the co-operative sector and very few young people were aware of what a co-operative was and its benefits.

An update from Sally Hartley, who is doing research for the Co-operative College and Open University in Uganda, reporting on youth co-operatives in the country.

In Singapore, campus co-operatives are common in schools and universities, providing services such as sale of books and educational materials, stationary, IT services and photocopying, sports goods, food and travel.

When a young Ugandan named Luke Othello visited Manchester in 2006 for a youth conference organised by the Co-operative College, it inspired him to set up a savings and credit co-operative in the sugar factory where he worked in Uganda. Kinyara SACCO is growing steadily and now has 800 members, with Luke keen to promote the importance of savings.

Sally Hartley, a PhD student from the Open University and the Co-operative College, has been in Uganda researching youth engagement with co-operatives. In the final installment of reports from the country, she describes a visit to Uganda Co-operative College:

This fascinating video, filmed by film production student Tom Coulson, looks at how women in Morocco are organising themselves into co-operatives and associations based around the production of argan, a type of oil used in cooking and cosmetics.

This short video about a long-running milk co-operative in Bangladesh was made by Al Jazeera English to mark the United Nations’ International Day of Co-operatives in July 2010.

Over a thousand school co-operatives recently took part in the Schools Cooperative Day in Malaysia for young entrepreneurs, which was themed ‘Creativity and Innovation Empowers School Cooperatives’.

Sally Hartley has been undertaking research in Africa, in parnership with the Co-operative College, as part of a PhD with the Open University. Here she reports on the Subeng Dinosaur Co-operative, which is based in the country.