Ignace Pollet

Reinventing the Wheel? African Cooperatives in a Liberalized Economic Environment

∗∗: Cooperative development in Africa can be said to have traversed two main eras: the era of state control and that of liberalization. The first era lasted up to the early 1990s and saw the origin and substantial growth of cooperatives on the continent. During that period, different models of cooperative development were introduced on the continent. We distinguish a unified cooperative model, a social economy model, a social movement model, a producers’ model and an indigenous model. But in all cases, cooperatives were engulfed into state politics. However, little is known about the impact of liberalization measures on these models. Our research in 11 African countries reveals that cooperatives in Africa have survived the market forces and continued to grow in number and membership. We see a slow but sure erosion of the unified model and the adoption of a social economy model. Cooperatives in Africa are re-examining their organizational forms and diversifying their activities in response to members’ interests and needs. ∗ Email: fwanyama@hotmail.com; patrick.develtere@hiva.kuleuven.be; Ignace.Pollet@hiva.kuleuven.be ∗∗ Resume en fin d’article; Zusammenfassung am Ende des Artikels; resumen al final del articulo. C

Encountering the Evidence: Cooperatives and Poverty Reduction in Africa

Discussion on the contribution of cooperatives to poverty reduction in Africa has quite often been based on their potential role rather than the actual impact, partly due to the dearth of empirical studies since the early 1990s. This paper provides evidence on the contribution of cooperatives to poverty reduction in Africa. Accordingly, it demonstrates that cooperatives have significantly contributed to the mobilization and distribution of financial capital; created employment and income-generating opportunities; constituted a forum for education and training; and set up solidarity schemes to cater for unexpected expenses related to illness, social welfare, death and other socio-economic problems.

Between Engagement and Reluctance: Governments’ Stand Towards Citizen Initiatives†

Abstract Based on a mapping (2013) of citizen initiatives in 17 European countries, this article explores the diversity in which governments recognise, respond to and engage with such citizen initiatives, mainly through legal definitions, funding schemes, and support practices. In many cases, governmental policies consider citizen initiatives as vehicles of public support for international development and as an addition to the already plural field of development actors. Contrastingly, available subsidies and support programmes are mainly tailored towards increasing professionalism, aiming to impose a minimum of quality standards on projects deployed. Evidence from the mapping also shows that, recently, central governments have gradually withdrawn from existing funding programmes, leaving the dealings with citizen initiates to local levels (region, province or municipality). Depending on how citizen initiatives are perceived – vehicles of public support, a welcome addition to the plural field of development actors, or initiatives that simply make a difference on the ground – the question arises whether that disconnect from central government should be considered worrying or welcoming.