Phalhani Moyo

How to Build a Cooperative Economy: What the Government Doesn't Tell You About Cooperatives Phalhani Moyo

Publisher Marketing: The cooperative economy seems not to be understood among the different classes of people today and its role in the economy tend to be ignored. Cooperatives like any other entity need to compete and make moderate profits for survival. Their role in the economy is remarkable especially in the field of food security, income generation and job creation. Many governments are still using cooperatives to eradicate extreme poverty, hunger and diseases among the local communities because of the organisational set-up. The cooperatives can also be ideal for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as means to foster economic development that can easily reach the forgotten populations. The cooperatives today in Africa are coming from the colonial and state-controlled mentality of dependence syndrome to what can be called the third generation cooperatives formed by people themselves. The introduction of new economic reforms in the 1990s saw the collapse of the cooperative movement and many societies are still in intensive care. The cooperative movement should embark on self-recapitalization, building the general membership capacity through education and training and members' participation-not the other way round. Just as John. F. Kennedy said many years ago "Don't ask what the government will do for you, but what you can do for your country."This explains that each cooperator is expected to make a contribution towards the economic growth of the country instead of depending on the government as the case is in Zambia.