ICA Africa Activities

ICA Africa implements the ICA Strategic Plan at the regional level

Membership / Governance

ICA Africa holds a variety of events for members in the region. These include the following upcoming and past events:

ICA Africa Regional Assembly

ICA Africa holds a Regional Assembly every two years where it addresses both statutory and thematic issues. 

Previous Regional Assemblies include Maseru, Lesotho on 2010 and Abuja, Nigeria in 2008.

ICA Africa Members Forum

The ICA Members' Forum defined how the ICA can function as a relevant organisation of the region, what support co-operatives expect from the ICA, and what constituted a relevant service delivery that serves the interests of the African co-operative movement.

The latest Members Forum was held on 12-14 May 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya. You can read the report here.

Influence

ICA Africa works with a number of initiatives to promote, defend and strengthen the co-operative form of enterprise:

Global Co-operative Campaign Against Poverty

The Global Co-operative Campaign Against Poverty. Co-operating Out of Poverty is a call to action to the world co-operative movement to join hands in fighting poverty. It aims to strengthen the capacity of co-operatives to make a significant contribution to poverty reduction by increasing their role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals particularly with regard to reducing poverty by half by the year 2015.

ILO COOPAfrica

COOPAfrica is a partnership programme implemented by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) aiming at supporting the development and promotion of co-operatives in Africa. ICA participates on the CoopAfrica Steering Committee which is the highest decision-making body of COOPAfrica and aims to strengthen the participation of the programme's partners and co-operative stakeholders in the planning, monitoring and evaluation. For more information visit www.ilo.org/coopafrica

ICA Africa Ministerial Conferences

The ICA has organised nine African Ministerial Co-operative Conferences to date. Bringing together co-operative leaders and ministers in charge of co-operatives, these conferences have been fora for constructive dialogue with a real impact on the regional co-operative agenda. They aim at creating a constructive partnership between governments and co-operatives.

The 9th Ministerial Conference was held in Nairobi, Kenya in November 2009. The 10th Ministerial Conference was held in Kigali, Rwanda in 2012.

Development

The activities carried out to promote co-operative development in Africa over the recent past years mainly focused on the creation of an enabling environment for co-operatives, the development of human resources and co-operative business development. ICA Africa believes these are pillars that can sustain the growth of co-operatives in the continent, and thereby, sustain economic growth in a continent struggling to find its way out of poverty.

Advocacy and Networking Project (ANP) - Funded by the Swedish Co-operative Centre (SCC)

The Advocacy and Networking Project is an institutional support to the ICA Africa Strategic Plan 2006-2008. Its objective is to help the co-operative movement to better address the opportunities, risks, and challenges faced in order to better serve the members and to contribute to the economic development and growth of African countries.   Achievements to-date include:

  • A Pan African Co-operative Gender Forum was held in Lesotho in 2007. It resulted in formulation of strategies that can be used by governments, development partners and co-operative movements for purposes of improving gender equality within co-operatives in Africa.
  • Capacity-building support to ICA member organisations and various workshops were organised including workshops and training on rural finance, microfinance and information management systems.
  • Contribution to ICA Africa's sustainability.
  • Contribution to poverty alleviation through ensuring the existence of an enabling environment through which co-operatives can conduct their businesses profitably and generate economic and social benefits for their members
     

Value Chain Financing

With support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Swedish Co-operative Centre (SCC), ICA Africa held two seminary on value chains and rural finance.

  • Exploring Rural Finance Best Practices Along Value Chains - Cases from East and Southern Africa, 21-24 September 2010, Lusaka (Zambia)
  • Value Chain Financing: Opportunities & Challenges, 8-16 September 2009, Kigali (Rwanda)

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