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Global Conference ‘Cooperatives for development’
ICA
Some Context
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For about a year now, some co-ops in the federation have been working on a strategy that consists of working “WITH” co-operatives, building relationships based on trust to collaborate on technological projects.
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Shortly after considering this strategy, we began to think about complementing it with another that focuses more on who we work for. So we wanted to do more concrete actions in order to work “FOR” co-ops.
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ICA: The International Co-operative Alliance, the global organisation that brings together all co-operative sectors.
What did we go looking for?
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Continue working on the implementation of the IT Network: The space proposed by the ICA to bring together cooperatives that have IT needs with IT solution providers.
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Work “FOR” co-ops: The global co-operative sector runs its business using technology. This technology should be produced by cooperatives.
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Meet people from other co-ops we wouldn’t be able to meet in person if it wasn’t during the event.
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To spread the word: To communicate the message that we work in collaboration to achieve our goals.
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To generate links with other co-ops that are open to the idea of working together.
How did we collaborate to participate?
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Faced with the current situation of our economy, if we wanted to travel to Africa to work on the proposed goals, we had to join forces.
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All co-ops in FACTTIC contributed extra money to the monthly fee to finance the trip.
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More than 15 co-operators from 10 different co-operatives also contributed work to produce: brochures, business cards and the FIT Landing Page.
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We set up an articulated communication strategy between co-operatives, FACTTIC and the person in charge of communication at the ICA to replicate the messages reporting the event.
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We set up a Diffusion Channel where we communicated every day the talks we attended at and the new links made.
What did we find there?
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1.100 co-operators from 94 different countries.
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A broad overview of the cooperative sector: From co-operatives and small federations, to corporations formed by many co-operatives.
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People who were surprised to learn that there was a co-operative sector dedicated to the production of technology.
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Interest in collaborative experiences between co-ops, in which many of us work as one to achieve a common goal.
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Interest in the tech co-ops network: It positions us as a stronger actor with whom they can interact.
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The need to show more of our daily work: Today there is not a tech co-op actor that represents our sector at an international level, so nobody heard of us.
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The need for technology applied to cooperativism: All cooperatives need some technological solution and we must be there to develop it.
What results did we get?
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Participation in this event was helpful in setting up the FIT Landing Page.
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We managed to build one more case of success through intercooperation: All the content we decided to produce in order to participate was completed in time through collaborative work.
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A lot of enthusiasm! When we saw the willingness and surprise of other co-ops to learn about the tech co-op sector.
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More knowledge: We brought information about other interesting co-operative processes in other parts of the world.
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Many contacts: We took advantage of participation to talk to people, get to know each other and discuss the possibility of working together.
Some photos!
Kigali Convention Center: Where all the talks were held.
First talk: ICA youth meeting.
Woodworking Cooperative visit.
Woodworking Cooperative visit.
Hounsing cooperative visit.
Main Salon: Where the most important talks took place.
Argentine Delegation!
Vandana Shiva, Indian philosopher and writer.
Last Day Dinner: One more meeting place to continue making connections.
Day off: We went for a ride with the Argentine delegation.
Day off: We visited a local non-tourist market to learn more about their culture.
Day off: We visited a local non-tourist market to learn more about their culture.
Conclusions
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It was very useful for me to have been able to participate, to continue to help in building a model based on collaboration between cooperatives.
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We can take advantage of spaces like these to continue creating cooperative links.
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We can continue creating our own spaces by learning from these kinds of experiences: What we want to replicate and what we don’t want to replicate.
Thank you!
