A new training centre, self-policing software and a confidence index will increase the accountability of Turkish co-operatives and renew their contribution towards government housing objectives, delegates heard at the ICA Housing symposium in Turkey.

The International Co-operative Alliance Housing and Türkkent, the Central Union of Turkish Urban Co-operatives, jointly ran the Istanbul-based event on 29 June.

More than 50 of the world’s leading co-operative experts from 11 countries heard an inspirational keynote speech by Professor Wulf Daseking, head of urban planning at the City of Freiburg in Germany. He outlined the principles that co-operating partners should follow to build well-planned cities like his, which he said was “like living in heaven” without needing lots of money, only new ideas and a long-term vision.

Türkkent is keen to reconnect with government partners after eight years in which the AKP Government – now entering its third consecutive term – has not engaged the potential of housing co-operatives to help meet Turkey’s pressing need for social housing.

After overseeing co-operative built homes for 15 years – including thousands to rebuild the city after the 1999 Marmara earthquake – the role of Turkey’s leading co-operative housing organisation, Türkkent as housing developer, was supplanted by the Government’s homebuilding agency, TOKİ.

“They are always using these words [issues of trust and governance] against us,” said Mehmet Aksoy, president of Türkkent in an impassioned speech. “There are some really good examples, so why don’t they talk about those? Is this a reason for having a monopoly over the housing sector?” He called for an end to negativity and said: “If we work in solidarity there is nothing we cannot overcome." Mr Aksoy also stressed the capability of Türkkent to lead urban regeneration and build homes for poorer families and the need for the co-operative sector and central and local government to work together to use this capability.

ICA Housing president David Rodgers said building trust between the government and co-operatives is a “two-way street” requiring open dialogue and a willingness to understand each other’s perspective.

Earlier at the symposium, Önder Kıraç, undersecretary at the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement, which oversees co-operatives in Turkey, announced two “self-policing mechanisms “to improve the governance of co-operatives and provide them with increased transparency. He said new software will help to raise awareness within co-operatives and a ranking-based confidence index would help to reclaim lost trust.

“The audit of co-operatives should be more effective, externally under their umbrella bodies when they are ready and internally within the co-operative,” he said. “We have developed software to raise awareness within co-operatives to enable members to see if their money has been well spent, or not, by the executives.”

Co-operative members will be able to check the confidence index to find their organisation’s ranking and use the information to ask questions of its executives.

Meanwhile, Muammer Niksarli, president of National Co-operative Union of Turkey, announced a new training centre to boost the professionalism of co-operatives in Turkey. He said all co-operators would be able to take the training to work towards a certificate that will allow them to become a co-operative member.

Separately, Vít Vaníček, president of CECODHAS – the European Federation of Social, Co-operatives and Public Housing, outlined a plan to bid for €180bn from the European Union Development Fund to increase the energy efficiency in 18 million homes across Europe.

The presentations from the conference are available here