"At a time when Italy has a very important role in Europe with the presidency of the Council for a six-month period and with Minister Federica Mogherini as head of foreign policy, the country is in the best period to relaunch its commitment to international cooperation". The Alliance of Italian Cooperatives writes it in a note, recalling that since 2008 this type of reality has engaged in over 130 development cooperation projects, for a total amount of over 59 million euros.
Cooperatives “are the enterprises that most of all can accompany developing countries in their growth. The reform of development cooperation must become a best practice”, said Lapo Pistelli, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, during a conference by the Alliance of Italian Cooperatives in collaboration with the DGCS-Maeci. “Today there are over two billion poor people in the world and over 50 million refugees and displaced persons – added Mauro Lusetti, president of the Alliance of Cooperatives -. The fight against poverty is one of the pillars of the strategy of the global cooperative movement by 2020".
Here are some of the most important projects in which Italian cooperatives are engaged today:
– In Togo for the three-year period 2012 – 2015. The project envisages interventions in the agricultural, financial and socio-cultural sectors, technical support for the development of cooperative entrepreneurship in the rural world in relation to some of the country's main agricultural supply chains (cereals, fruit and vegetables and fishing), as well as for the institutional strengthening of two main micro-finance institutions and the National Peasant Confederation (Ctop).
– Rural development in Sierra Leone. in partnership with the CEI. The project aims to promote the application of cooperative principles for rural development through: the training of farmers and development agents; the introduction of more productive and sustainable modern agricultural techniques; the increase of the land available for existing crops and new productions; the improvement of quality and quantity of productions for a better placement in nearby markets.
– Campesina Microfinance in Ecuador. The project, active for 10 years, is based on the direct collaboration between Federcasse, the Italian Cooperative Credit Federation, and Codesarrollo-Cooperativa Desarrollo de los Pueblos (the body, part of the Fepp-Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progressio, which associates the more than 800 small village banks scattered across the Andes) ratified by a cultural and financial cooperation agreement signed in 2002 and renewed in October 2012, during the ninth edition of the "Mission of Cooperative Credit in Ecuador".
– In Tanzania. The project, in partnership with Granarolo, was born following the inauguration of a Dairy Plant built by Cefa in the town of Njombe, which took place in February 2007, after a preparation and construction work that lasted about 5 years. In fact, it was a question of preparing the supply base, through a prophylactic selection of existing dairy cows and the establishment of a specific bovine registry of the contributors, in order to avoid any infectious germ in the milk, as unfortunately was in practice. The Njombe Milk Factory was set up for management, a real company that buys milk and transforms it into cheese, yoghurt and pasteurized milk. Milk collection has increased from 700 liters per day to the current 4000.
– Tsunami in Sri Lanka. In the aftermath of the tsunami that hit Sri Lanka, Legacoop launched a solidarity campaign with its members, employees, companies and cooperative structures, raising 623 thousand euros, with which it intervened to support the cooperatives damaged by the Tsunami in the districts of Ampara, Kalutara and Hambantonta. The two non-governmental organizations GVC and UCODEP and the National Cooperative Council, the representative organization of Sri Lankan cooperatives, were involved in the project. There were 50 cooperatives that benefited from the project, plus 5 associations. There were 16.138 direct beneficiaries, while 104.125 indirect ones.
– Legacoop for Haiti. The Legacoop project for Haiti, born in the aftermath of the earthquake that destroyed the island on 12 January 2010, was created thanks to contributions from cooperatives, members and employees. The partners for the implementation of the project were the non-governmental organizations GVC, Oxfam Italia and Doctors Without Borders, which were already operating in Haiti before the earthquake. With GVC and Oxfam Italia, small rural producers were supported, through the strengthening of the agricultural cooperative experience (80.000 indirect beneficiaries). The project then contributed to the construction by Médecins Sans Frontières of a mobile hospital in the east of the capital Port-au-Prince with 108 beds.
