COMMENTARY
International co-op development promotes trade, democracy
Cooperatives yield enormous benefits
not only to their member-owners in
the United States, but also around the
world. USDA has long been active in
helping to spread the use of the cooperative
business structure internationally,
a charge contained in the
Cooperative Marketing Act and other
legislation. This work may be accomplished
through the exchange of educational
and research materials, engaging
in joint activities, providing direct technical
assistance to agricultural producers
and even by stationing representatives
at institutions or with farm organizations
in foreign countries.
Since Congress has not specifically
provided a budget for international coop
development work carried out by
the Cooperative Services program of
the Rural Business-Cooperative
Service (part of USDA Rural
Development), most of our assistance
over the years has either been through
information exchanges and meetings or
through in-country technical assistance
(usually funded by international donor
groups). Countries receiving this assistance
tend to follow the thrust of U.S.
foreign policy direction at a given time
(hence, Central and South America in
the 1960s and 1970s, the Pacific Rim
in the 1980s and Africa in the 1990s
and at present). Significant historical
events have also played a part in
directing these efforts, such as the fall
of the Iron Curtain and a resulting
emphasis on developing co-ops in
Eastern Europe.
RBS Cooperative Services also hosts
hundreds of foreign visitors annually
(usually farm organization representatives
and government officials) who are
interested in U.S. cooperatives and
how their practices and operations
might be adopted for use in their
native lands.
Of course, USDA cooperative publications
are in high demand by these
groups and by others around the
world. Many of our basic cooperative
publications have been reprinted in
foreign languages and are widely distributed
around the globe, both in
hard copies and through the Internet.
For example, one of our basic co-op
primers, “Co-ops 101” by Donald
Frederick, was recently translated into
Chinese. The U.S. style of cooperative
structure, where farmers are the owners
and beneficiaries of a business, has
obvious global appeal.
Most direct international technical
assistance provided by RBS
Cooperative Services is closely linked
to assistance efforts by other USDA
agencies. For example, the Nigerian
assistance effort (reported on page 12
of this issue of Rural Cooperatives) is
part of an overall USDA initiative to
help the Nigerian Ministry of
Agriculture achieve broad-based rural
development objectives in agriculture.
Technical expertise in Nigeria is also
being supplied by USDA’s Cooperative
State Research, Education & Extension
Service, Foreign Agricultural Service,
Agricultural Research Service, Food
Safety and Inspection Service, Natural
Resources Conservation Service, Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service and
Agricultural Marketing Service.
In a neighboring West African
country, cooperative development and
education work is at the centerpiece of
a partnership between USDA and
Ghana’s Ministry of Food and
Agriculture. Several of the other
USDA agencies named above are also
involved in a wide range of joint projects
to strengthen Ghana’s agricultural
sector. Projects are underway to
strengthen the farmer cooperative system
in Ghana by adapting contemporary
cooperative principles and business
practices to that nation’s needs. In
so doing, cooperatives should become
more effective competitors in the marketplace
and generate more income for
their farmer members.
RBS Cooperative Services-directed
projects in Ghana, done in partnership
with Opportunities Industrialization
Centers International, include: technical
assistance and education work with
rice, fruit and vegetable cooperatives;
organizing new cassava cooperatives;
and curriculum development and
design and information technologycapacity
building with the Cooperative
College in Kumasi, the sole institution
of higher learning in Ghana dedicated
to cooperative education. Ghana’s
extension personnel are also being
taught about cooperative organization
and methods. These efforts and similar
work done recently in Senegal
have involved a wide range of publicand
private-sector partners, many of
which have been named above, plus
the U.S. Peace Corps, the Federation
of Southern Cooperatives, CLUSA
and USAID.
What are the benefits emanating
from such international work with
cooperatives? By helping developing
nations adopt Western-style cooperative
business structures that raise
farm incomes, we will build stronger
trading partners and related economic
relationships. Cooperatives also
help export that most fundamental of
all American values: democracy in
action.
By James Haskell,
Acting Deputy Administrator
Rural Business-Cooperative Service
