Cooperatives, Unions Foster Peacemaking Initiatives

ENA  February 7/2020 Cooperatives and Unions, as builders of socio-economic development, are making significant contributions to the pressing issue of peacemaking initiative. 

Representatives of Cooperatives and Unions who talked ENA said such social and economic enterprises fostered democratic knowledge and practices making them well-positioned to support peace building efforts.

Cooperatives and Unions offer an alternative model for enterprise, with contributions to peace building processes well beyond job creation, they added.

Founder and Manager of the Awach Saving and Credit Primary Cooperative, Zerihun Sheleme said cooperative and unions have been contributing considerable role in peace building process among the societies.

He noted that Cooperatives and Unions represent peaceful livelihood, companionship and cooperation among their members on the top of their economic advantages.

For example, cooperative union brings together around 230 Israeli-Jews and Palestinian- Israeli Arabs in Israel to work and promote living in harmony and peacefully.

Cooperatives and Unions has been playing crucial roles in re-building peace and stability in several crisis and conflict stricken countries like Rwanda and Nepal, where Cooperatives and Unions used as peacemaking initiatives.

Appreciating their role, Zerihun stated that promoting such enterprises would help the country to capitalize on peace building achievements for sustainable development.

Re-emphasizing the need to reinforce Cooperatives and Unions, he said “We have to strengthen our Cooperative and Unions. Because, for me, promoting such enterprises means achieving two goals at a time; we can achieve our economic growth and at the same time we can promote peace and cooperation among the people.”

In total, about one billion people are involved in cooperatives in some way, either as members or customers, as employees or participants, or as or both.

Cooperatives employ at least 100 million people worldwide, and the livelihoods of nearly half the world’s population have been estimated as made secure by cooperative enterprise.

Likewise, Manager of Gozamin Farmers Cooperative, Wegayew Mingstie said Cooperatives and Unions have been promoting unseen peaceful livelihoods and cultural interchange among communities.

According to him, Cooperatives and Unions have their own rules and regulation on how to resolve conflicts and differences within communities. “They are axes for democratic building alternatives,” he added.

According to the Federal Cooperative Agency more than 21 million people are cooperated under cooperative unions and cooperative associations in Ethiopia.

The world’s largest co-operative enterprises have collective revenues of USD 1.6 trillion, which are comparable to the GDP of the world’s 9th largest economy-Spain.