April 2021

APRIL 2021 

IS RESILIENCE 

BUILT INTO THE 

CO-OP MODEL? 

Plus … Where do 

co-operatives fit in the new 

retail landscape? ... The 

humanisation of healthcare 

... 90 years of the Rochdale 

Pioneers Museum 

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www.thenews.coop

news 

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new 

news Issue #7312 OCTOBER 2019 

Connecting, championing, cha lenging 

OCTOBER 2019 

SUSTAINABLE 

DEVELOPMENT 

How are co-ops 

helping to make 

the SDGs a reality? 

Plus … ICA Global 

Conference preview ... 

Meet Fairtrade Foundation’s 

Michael Gidney ... positive 

impacts of the Preston Model 

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news Issue #7311 SEPTEMBER 2019 

Connecting, championing, challenging 

SEPTEMBER 2019 

AGRICULTURE 

Can co-ops reduce 

the burden down 

on on the the farm? farm? 

Plus … Preview of the 

ICA Global Conference ... 

Why co-ops should be like 

pirates ... and proposals 

for Irish legal reform 

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SEPTEMBER 2018 Connecting, championing, cha lenging 

9 

www. 

AGRICULTURE: 

MICRO TO MACRO 

Issue #7305 

MARCH 2019 

SO, WHAT 

HAPPENS NEXT? 

Co-operating for 

etter Brexit 

A new generation 

.. Meet Heart 

i Kurji ... 

pened to 

mit? 

news Issue #7310 AUGUST 2019 


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AUGUST 2019 

CO-OP CULTURE 

What is it – 

and why does 

it matter? 

Plus … 100 years 

of the Channel Islands 

Co-operative ... Coop 

Exchange: addressing 

the issue of capital 


news Issue #7307 MAY 2019 

Connecting, c 

Plus ... The future 

of work ... new models 

of co-operation ... 100 

years of the ILO 

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MAY 2019 

WORKERS 

The heart of people 

-centred businesses 

Issue #7309 

news 

JULY 2019 

DEVELOPMENT 

news Issue #7298 AUGUST 2018 


AUGUST 2018 

GOING FOR 

GROWTH 

How to help the 

movement thrive 

Plus ... 150 years of 

Radstock ... Using spoken 

word to tell the co-op 

story ... Lessons from US 

worker co-ops 

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news Issue #7306 APRIL 2019 


Plus ... Co-operative 

Retail Conference update 

... Abcul’s annual event ... 

Q&A with Gillian Lonergan 

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APRIL 2019 

EDUCATION 

FOR ALL 

Learning for a 

co-operative life 

FEBRUARY 2019 Connecting, championing, cha lenging 

How can we grow 

the global co-op 

community? 

CO-OPERATIVE 

MARCH 2021 | 49 

Plus … a manifesto 

for Northern Ireland 

… Stephen R McD 

on US developm 

Co-op Congr 

ISSN 0009-98

Resilience: what does it mean, and 

what does it look like in practice? 

CONNECTING, CHAMPIONING AND 

CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL CO-OP 

MOVEMENT SINCE 1871 

Holyoake House, Hanover Street, 

Manchester M60 0AS 

(00) 44 161 214 0870 


editorial@thenews.coop 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Rebecca Harvey | rebecca@thenews.coop 

INTERNATIONAL EDITOR 

Anca Voinea | anca@thenews.coop 

DIGITAL EDITOR 

Miles Hadfield | miles@thenews.coop 

DESIGN 

Keir Mucklestone-Barnett 

DIRECTORS 

Barbara Rainford (chair); Elaine Dean 

(vice-chair); Harry Cairney; Sofygil 

Crew; Tim Hartley; Phil Hartwell; 

Gillian Lonergan; Beverley Perkins; 

Shaz Rahman; Lesley Reznicek 

Secretary: Richard Bickle 

Established in 1871, Co-operative 

News is published by Co-operative 

Press Ltd, a registered society under 

the Co-operative and Community 

Benefit Society Act 2014. It is printed 

every month by Buxton Press, Palace 

Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. 

Membership of Co-operative Press is 

open to individual readers as well as 

to other co-operatives, corporate bodies 

and unincorporated organisations. 

The Co-operative News mission 

statement is to connect, champion 

and challenge the global co-operative 

movement, through fair and objective 

journalism and open and honest 

comment and debate. Co-op News 

is, on occasion, supported by co-ops, 

but final editorial control remains with 

Co-operative News unless specifically 

labelled ‘advertorial’. The information 

and views set out in opinion articles 

and letters do not necessarily reflect 

the opinion of Co-operative News. 

@coopnews 

cooperativenews 

Co-operatives are resilient – we are told this at conferences, in reports and through 

stories. But this resilience means different things depending on where in the world 

you are, and what sector you and your co-operative work in. This issue we speak with 

co-ops and co-operators from around the world from a variety of sectors, to hear 

what resilience means to them, and how they are building it into their co-operative 

identity and activity. 

Financial resilience is of huge importance to businesses, and co-ops are no 

exception. Abcul’s annual conference explored how credit unions are remaining 

resilient in the context of Covid-19, regulatory change, climate change and interest 

rate challenges – and highlighted how the sector has the opportunity to serve a 

wider demographic and embrace digital transformations (p28-29). From Europe, 

Nina Schindler (new CEO of the EACB) talks about the co-op difference in the banking 

sector: “These are the circumstances where the co-op structure shows its added 

value – by supporting their clients as they are not based on shareholder value, but 

long-term customer relationships” (p38-39). And from the international mutual 

insurance sector, ICMIF’s Shaun Tarbuck speaks about the importance of embracing 

the Sustainable Development Goals when planning for a resilient future (p40-41). 

At a more local level, Gareth Swarbrick tells us how Rochdale Boroughwide Housing 

works with local partners to provide new, affordable homes and modern community 

facilities that will stand the test of time (p44-45), and Susan Press explores the 

resilience of co-operatives operating in changing town centres (p36-37). From the 

Co-op Party, chair Jim McMahon talks about the importance of policy to encourage 

resilience, and the power of community to achieve change. “It’s important that you 

have an empowering state, but nobody wants to have things done to them, even 

if it’s for the right reasons,” he says (p42-43). Meanwhile, this year’s Co-operative 

Retail Conference saw the movement assess its place in a world undergoing 

extraordinary changes (p26-27). 

Sustainability and equality are also vital to resilience. In Germany, DGRV hosted 

a National Co-operative Energy Congress looking at how to strengthen the role of 

co-ops in the country’s Energiewende transition to a low-carbon system (p30), 

while a seminar hosted by the International Co-operative Alliance’s Gender Equality 

Committee discussed gender equality progress in the context of Covid-19 (p31). 

This month is also the 90th anniversary of the opening of the Rochdale Pioneers 

Museum (p46-47) – a fitting tribute to the resilience of the early pioneers, the 

knowledge they gathered, and their inspiring way of doing business that is still 

thriving after nearly two centuries. 

REBECCA HARVEY - EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Co-operative News is printed using vegetable oil-based 

inks on 80% recycled paper (with 60% from post-consumer 

waste) with the remaining 20% produced from FSC or PEFC 

certified sources. It is made in a totally chlorine free process. 

APRIL 2021 | 3

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THIS ISSUE 

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: 

90 years of the Rochdale Pioneers Museum 

(p46-47); How Rochdale Boroughwide 

Housing is building resilient communities 

through community spaces (p36-37); Meet 

... Maria Eugenia Pérez Zea (p22-23); Bonin 

Bough, one of the speakers announced for the 

World Credit Union Conference in July (p19); 

Nina Schindler, new CEO of the EACB (p38-39) 

news Issue #7330 APRIL 2021 

Connecting, championing, challenging 

APRIL 2021 

IS RESILIENCE 

BUILT INTO THE 

CO-OP MODEL? 

Plus … Where do 

co-operatives fit in the new 

retail landscape? ... The 

humanisation of healthcare 

... 90 years of the Rochdale 

Pioneers Museum 

£4.20 


COVER: 

Co-operatives are resilient. But how is 

resilience built into the business model 

– and what does it look like in practice? 

Read more: p32-45 

22-23 MEET … MARIA EUGENIA 

PÉREZ ZEA 

Chair of the International Cooperative 

Alliance’s Gender Equality Committee 

26-27 UK CO-OP RETAIL CONFERENCE 

The future has arrived – so where do retail 

co-ops fit in the retail landscape? 

28-29 ABCUL’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

New services could mean new regulation 

for larger credit unions in the UK 

30 NATIONAL CO-OP ENERGY 

CONGRESS (GERMANY) 

‘How can we strengthen energy co-ops in 

the German Energiewende?’ 

31 GENDER EQUALITY PROGRESS 

IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19 

A webinar organised by the ICA’s Gender 

Equality Committee 

32-45 RESILIENCE 

32-33 ENERGY 

Can America’s electric co-ops weather 

another severe storm? 

34-35 HEALTH 

‘Our co-op identity commits us to a 

humanised healthcare approach’ 

36-37 HOUSING 

Resilient communities through 

co-operative housing 

38-39 FINANCE 

Co-operative resilience in the banking 

sector: A European perspective 

40-41 MUTUAL INSURANCE 

Sustainable development goals and 

resilience for an unknown future 

42-43 POLITICS 

Co-op Party chair Jim McMahon MP on 

building resilience through policy 

44-45 COMMUNITIES 

Where will Covid leave our towns – 

and the co-ops that operate in them? 

46-47 ROCHDALE PIONEERS MUSEUM 

Co-op News at 150: Liz McIvor on 90 years 

of the Rochdale Pioneers Museum 

REGULARS 

5-13 UK updates 

14-21 Global updates 

24 Letters 

25 Obituaries 

48 Reviews 

50 Digital events 

4 | APRIL 2021

NEWS 

DEVELOPMENT 

Search for new platform 

co-ops to take on the 

big tech monopolies 

A business support programme has 

opened for UK platform co-operatives. 

The UnFound Accelerator programme – 

run by Co-operatives UK and Stir to Action 

with funding from the Co-op Bank – will 

see 16 teams of tech entrepreneurs the 

take part in two accelerators in 2021. The 

second round comes later in the year. 

Each accelerator offers eight teams 10 

weeks of masterclasses ending with a 

pitch event, and the chance to win part of 

a £10,000 prize funded by the Bank. 

Platform co-ops are businesses that 

use a website or mobile app. They rely on 

democratic decision-making and shared 

ownership of the platform by workers 

and users, and have been advocated 

as an ethical alternative to giant tech 

corporations like Amazon and Uber. 

Critics of the platform economy say 

it has led to exploitation of regulations, 

increased precariousness of work, and 

created the conditions for digital giants 

to dominate markets. It is hoped platform 

co-ops will develop digital business in a 

more collaborative and equitable way. 

The UnFound Accelerators will be led 

by industry experts to help the teams 

develop their platform business to work 

co-operatively, alongside work on product 

development, business planning, and 

branding and marketing. 

Expert support and funding 

opportunities are on offer as the teams 

prepare to launch their businesses. The 

first pitch event is on 21 July, with the 

second round at the end of the year. 

Rose Marley, CEO of Co-operatives 

UK, said: “Today’s modern co-operative 

movement sits at the centre of a 

spectrum of dynamic new developments. 

Collaborative tech sits front and central to 

this and Co-operatives UK has been at the 

forefront of supporting game-changing 

platform co-ops for a number of years. 

“The future of co-operation is focused 

on solving complex new problems and 

providing business solutions for new 

and existing co-operatives. The desire to 

create and operate fair and equitable tech 

platforms has increased in direct response 

to the pandemic with notable examples 

emerging in the sectors such as care, food 

and logistics. Good examples are Equal 

Care Co-op, a social care platform that 

puts care givers and receivers in control, 

and Open Food Network, an open source 

platform that enables new, ethical food 

supply chains.” 

Catherine Douglas, managing 

director for SME at the Co-op Bank, 

said: “We are committed to supporting 

co-operative businesses and helping 

them have a positive impact on the 

economy, society and their communities. 

We’re therefore delighted to support the 

UnFound Accelerator programme, which 

will provide invaluable guidance and 

support to new platform co-operatives.” 

Jonny Gordon-Farleigh, founder of Stir 

to Action, said: “The digital economy does 

not have to be the new shorthand for low 

wages and insecure work. The relaunch 

of the UnFound accelerator this year is 

another opportunity to ensure the future 

of business is not just doing ‘good’, but 

democratic.” 

The deadline for applications to 

the first accelerator is 11 April. Visit: 

unfound.coop/accelerator 

COMMUNITY 

Co-op Group backs new initiative to keep youth safe from violence 

The Co-op Foundation – the charity run by 

the Co-op Group – is backing a new project 

to make sure young people can live a live 

free of violence. 

The £5.1m project, which also involves 

the Youth Endowment Fund and the #iwill 

Fund (a joint investment between The 

National Lottery Community Fund and 

government), will help young people shape 

solutions for their own communities. 

A statement from the Youth Endowment 

Fund said: “From campaigning to improve 

local mental health services, setting 

up a youth centre or supporting young 

people into employment – we’ll create 

opportunities for young people.” 

Organisers want regional delivery 

partners to help recruit and support 

a network of peer researchers and 

changemakers, and would like to hear from 

anyone working for a local youth group 

which can help them. 

Deadline 16 April at s.coop/2kimk 


EQUALITY 

Co-operators from Central England join meetings 

to highlight gender violence 

Derbyshire’s police and crime 

commissioner Hardyal Dhindsa met with 

local women last month to discuss current 

concerns around their safety. 

The virtual event was organised by Dr 

Alison Martin, Labour/Co-op candidate in 

Derby City Council elections who is also on 

Central England Co-operative’s Northern 

Membership & Community Council. 

The commissioner said he was looking 

at working with retail co-ops such as the 

Central England Co-op, which can act as 

safe havens for women at risk due to their 

longer opening hours. 

In 2018 the Derbyshire Constabulary 

launched the Ask for ‘Angela’ campaign, 

encouraging anyone feeling unsafe on a 

night out to approach pub staff for help 

asking to speak to ‘Angela’ to signal that 

they are uncomfortable or needed help. 

Dr Martin said: “Following the police 

handling of the Clapham Common vigil 

for Sarah Everard on 13 March, I asked 

Hardyal Dhindsa to meet with some local 

women that following week. While the 

police can only ever be just one part of 

the solution to violence against women, 

it was important to establish that they are 

not part of the problem. We had a very 

informative and productive meeting with 

Mr Dhindsa, who set out the many strands 

of action Derbyshire police are taking. 

“This is an issue that runs very deep in 

our society, but we can all do something 

to help women and girls be safer and feel 

safer. The co-operative movement can play 

its part in many ways, perhaps by running 

awareness campaigns via its many retail 

stores and promoting schemes such as the 

‘Ask for Angela’ codeword in them.” 

A similar ‘Ask for Ani’ campaign was 

also implemented as part of a national 

effort to allow victims of domestic abuse to 

access support from their local pharmacy. 

Elaine Dean, vice president of Central 

England and chair of Derby North 

Constituency Labour Party, said: “This 

isn’t a women’s issue, it is an issue for 

men to address and deal with and educate 

their sons.” 

Jane Avery 

This point was reiterated a week later by 

Jane Avery, president of Central England 

Co-op, at an online Men’s Voices event 

held by the society. She said it is time to 

recognise the way that men’s behaviour 

can harm women’s wellbeing and sense of 

personal safety. 

Guest speaker at the event – Andy 

Burnham, Labour Co-op Mayor for Greater 

Manchester, also called for men to take 

greater responsibility on the issue. 

CULTURE 

Co-op film festival to highlight social justice 

A virtual social justice-themed film 

festival is being organised by the 

Birmingham Co-operative Film Society 

(‘Just Film’) in partnership with Central 

England Co-operative and Co-op News for 

Co-operatives Fortnight in June. 

Just Film, which is affiliated with 

Cinema for All, has provided a monthly 

public screening of a ‘film to make you 

think’ for the last decade, and has run 

online screenings during lockdown. 

The co-op was established with help 

from Central England Co-op, which 

continues to provide support. 

Kate Palser, chair of the board, said: 

“We screen a range of titles not normally 

on offer in the city centre, all high quality 

and always entertaining. They have raised 

important issues relating to social justice, 

the environment, peace, co-operation and 

human rights. 

“Our monthly film shows are open to 

all, although we encourage individuals 

like-minded individuals and groups to 

become members. This gives you a say in 

the running of the society and discounts 

on ticket prices.” 

After celebrating its 10th anniversary 

in 2020, the Society’s Film Festival is a 

new and exciting development for 2021. 

The final program is still in planning but 

will continue to feature a mix of drama, 

documentary and animation that explores 

major social issues of the day. 

Alongside traditional features, the 

Festival will include the screening of 

20 short films submitted in one of three 

competition categories: Telling Cooperative 

Stories (sponsored by Co-op 

News); Social Justice Drama Shorts; and 

Social Justice Documentary Short. Judges 

will include Debbie Robinson (CEO, 

Central England) and Rebecca Harvey 

(editor, Co-op News). 

There will be an additional prize 

awarded to a film in any category 

submitted by film-makers under the age of 

25 (sponsored by Central England Co-op). 

The festival runs from its online launch 

on Friday 18 June unitl Sunday 4 July. 

Entries for the short film categories can be 

submitted between 5 April and 21 May. 

More info at justfilm.coop/festival 


ECONOMY 

Movement welcomes extension of social 

investment tax relief in spring budget 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his 

spring budget last month with a series of 

measures in response to the Covid-19 crisis, 

including an extension of the furlough 

scheme to September and financial 

support for businesses as they reopen. 

Of particular note to the co-op movement 

is the £150m Community Ownership Fund 

and an extension to social investment 

tax relief (SITR) until April 2023, which 

means investors can continue to claim 

back 30% of investments from HMRC 

when they invest in an eligible charity 

or social enterprise. 

Peter Holbrook, CEO at Social Enterprise 

UK, said: “We welcome the decision from 

the chancellor to extend SIR and listen to 

the views of social enterprises. 

“However, we need this to be the start 

of a dialogue about how we can create 

a supportive tax environment for social 

enterprises. The level of tax support that 

social enterprises receive compared to 

other sectors of the economy is not equal 

and SITR does not solve all the problems 

social enterprises face.” 

“There is no route to levelling up that 

doesn’t involve growing social enterprises. 

Government has a critical role to play 

in supporting the sector and I hope that 

this Budget marks the start of renewed 

engagement with social enterprises.” 

Welcoming the Community Ownership 

Fund, Rose Marley, chief executive of 

Co-operatives UK, said: “We know what 

a difference this will make through our 

experience leading the Community Shares 

Booster programme ... We’re looking 

forward to talking to government about 

how we can help deliver this.” 

Using funding provided by Power to 

Change and the Architectural Heritage 

Fund, the Community Share Booster 

programme has provided £2.6m in 

matched investments, leveraging in a 

further £7.3m directly from the community, 

says Co-operatives UK. A key difference of 

the new fund is that it will be UK-wide – 

whereas the Community Shares Booster 

was only available in England, because it 

uses Lottery funding. 

“Communities rushing to launch their 

share offers by the April deadline will be 

breathing a huge sigh of relief,” said Ms 

Marley. “We will continue to work with 

partners to access this tax relief and run 

successful community share offers.” 

Locality, which represents community 

businesses in the UK, also welcomed the 

Community Ownership Fund. 

Chief executive Tony Armstrong said: 

“Community ownership can help save 

our local high streets and heritage, bring 

communities together and be a foundation 

for local economic renewal. Community 

assets have been sold off at huge rates over 

the last few years, and the pandemic puts 

these places in further danger. 

“Through community ownership we can 

prevent the buildings and spaces we love, 

our libraries, youth centres, allotments and 

public swimming pools, from falling into 

private hands.” 

He added: “Any government serious 

about ‘levelling-up’ must start by putting 

power and resources in the hands of those 

who truly understand the issues – local 

communities themselves.” 

Most of the budget was taken up by 

measures to help businesses through 

the pandemic and lockdown measures. 

Co-operatives UK notes that: 

• the job furlough scheme is extended 

to the end of September 

• a £5bn Restart Grant scheme to 

help businesses in England reopen 

p Rishi Sunak (Photo: No.10 Downing Street) 

after lockdown, with grants of 

up to £18,000 for hospitality, 

accommodation, leisure, personal 

care and gym businesses, and up to 

£6,000 for non-essential businesses 

• A new UK-wide Recovery Loan 

Scheme will replace CBILs and 

BBILs to make loans between 

£25,001 and £10m available 

• An extra £300m has been added to 

the Culture Recovery Fund, which 

co-ops should be eligible for 

• The VAT cut to 5% for hospitality, 

accommodation and attractions 

across the UK has been extended 

until the end of September, followed 

by a 12.5% rate for a further six 

months until 31 March 2022 

• Businesses rates relief for eligible 

retail, hospitality and leisure sectors 

in England has been extended 

• £126m for the Kickstart traineeship 

scheme, which sees government 

pay employers who give young 

people work placements. 

AGRICULTURE 

SAOS sets out policy asks for Scottish farm co-ops 

The apex body for Scotland’s food and 

farm co-ops has set out its policy wishlist 

for the sector. 

The Scottish Agricultural Organisation 

Society (SAOS) says there are a number of 

market opportunities but the sector needs 

to work together to effectively manage the 

challenges it faces. 

It sets out four key priorities for the next 

Scottish government: 

• develop opportunities to add value 

to agricultural produce and to 

increase wider market opportunity 

and access 

• promote the development and 

uptake of all forms of agricultural 

co-operation and its benefits 

• support the food and farming sector 

to adapt positively to climate change 

• empower farming through 

ownership and uptake of tech. 


TECHNOLOGY 

Wales Co-operative 

Centre joins digital 

exclusion campaign 

Wales Co-operative Centre has joined up 

with 40 other organisations across the 

public, private and third sector to call for 

an end to digital exclusion in Wales. 

The Digital Inclusion Alliance for Wales 

(DIAW) also includes BT, Citizens Advice 

Bureau, Disability Wales, Older People’s 

Commissioner and Public Health Wales. 

Its published agenda for digital inclusion 

sets out five priorities for the Welsh 

government: 

• Embed digital inclusion across 

all sectors 

• Mainstream digital inclusion in 

health and social care 

• Address data poverty as a key issue 

• Prioritise digital skills in the post- 

Covid economy 

• Set a digital living standard 

The National Survey for Wales 

found that 90% of adults (16 and over) 

personally use the internet in 2019/20 – 

up from 77% in 2012/13. But Prof Hamish 

Laing, chair of the DIAW, warns this still 

falls short of where Wales needs to be as a 

digitally inclusive nation. 

He said: “Covid-19 has shone a bright 

light on the country’s digital inequalities. 

Many children and young people have 

been unable to access learning online, 

patients have been unable to take part 

in video consultations, relatives have 

been unable to connect with loved ones 

isolated in hospital or care homes.” 

Digital Communities Wales is a Welsh 

government-funded programme delivered 

by the Wales Co-operative Centre in 

partnership with the Good Things 

Foundation and Swansea University. 

Since 2019 it has been working with all 

seven health boards in Wales to tackle 

digital exclusion. The support ranges 

from practical digital training for health 

professionals, to strategic support to help 

senior health executives integrate digital 

inclusion into their public-facing services. 

Jocelle Lovell, director of inclusive 

communities at Wales Co-operative 

Centre and a member of DIAW, said: 

“The rapid growth in digital technologies 

brings amazing opportunities for people. 

But there is also a serious risk that people 

who are digitally excluded get left behind. 

“Without access to the internet, it can 

be difficult to find information and verify 

what is being reported. Internet access 

and basic digital skills also bring wider 

benefits that have been important for 

many older people during the pandemic, 

such as helping them to stay connected 

with family and friends and access useful 

online services including the delivery of 

food or medication. 

ECONOMY 

North West England and Wales make progress on regional mutuals 

Preston City Council has agreed to join 

local authorities in Liverpool and Wirral to 

set up a North West Mutual Bank. 

The council will look for a banking 

licence for the venture after launching a 

second phase of its community wealth 

building initiative to build a democratic 

economy, by commissioning services from 

local SMEs – including worker co-ops set 

up for the purpose. 

Registered with the Financial Conduct 

Authority in May 2020, the bank can now 

start registering its trademarks and other 

intellectual property. 

Cllr Freddie Bailey, Preston’s cabinet 

member for community wealth building, 

said: “This is an exciting step in our 

project to bring community banking to 

the North West. With many high street 

banks closing, it’s an important time 

to offer local people and businesses an 

alternative that will put people over profit 

and reinvest funds into our communities.” 

Cllr Martyn Rawlinson, cabinet member 

p Preston is pushing ahead with joint plans for a regional mutual bank 

for resources and performance, added: 

“Small businesses have felt the effects of 

the pandemic most and will need support 

to bounce back and thrive. By working 

with a community bank, small businesses 

and community-focused projects can get 

the best services and advice.” 

Meanwhile, the Welsh government has 

announced it is on track to establish a 

Community Bank of Wales this year. 

Working with the Wales Pension 

Partnership and UK regulators it has 

developed a commercial investment 

proposal for the rollout of Banc Cambria. 

In an update, the Welsh cabinet said: 

“The proposal is currently being explored 

and subjected to rigorous due diligence 

processes by Welsh government officials 

and our independent external advisors. 

“The Welsh government, together 

with our wider partners, recognises the 

immediate and evidenced need to address 

the market failure in locally delivered, 

multichannel, bilingual and essential 

banking services across Wales. 

“This is exceptional progress, especially 

considered against the backdrop of the 

restrictions due to the pandemic.” 

Preston model: Book review, page 48 


WORKER CO-OPS 

CoTech looks for co-op routes to a more resilient economy 

CoTech, a network of UK worker co-ops 

providing technology, digital and creative 

services, hosted a webinar last week on 

co-operative resilience. 

Speakers included Rose Marley, CEO of 

Co-operatives UK, who pointed out that 

after the first five years, 75% of co-ops still 

exist as opposed to 45% for non-co-ops. 

As an example of the co-op response 

to Covid-19, she said Edinburgh Bike Cooperative 

had offered free bike repairs 

to essential workers during the first 

lockdown. For other worker co-ops 

difficult decisions about furlough were 

taken by all worker owners rather than via 

a formal, top-down process, she added. 

But co-ops must improve the way they 

communicate their impact and values, she 

warned. “Men and women in the street 

don’t know what a co-op is in the way they 

know what Fairtrade is.” 

Daniel Cox, project development 

manager at Co-op College, said co-ops 

need to address issues around language 

and communication and promote 

diversity in order to attract young people. 

He thinks initiatives could include cooperatives 

recruiting from co-op schools 

and academies. “Young people need to 

see what we are doing and want to be a 

part of that,” he said. 

Siôn Whellens from Calverts Co-op in 

London thinks Covid-19 has put a stronger 

emphasis on essential products and 

services, which worker co-ops provide. 

He believes worker co-ops are at an 

advantage during crises because they 

are good at analysing the management 

p Siôn Whellens 

process. They also consider the human 

needs outside work, such as those of 

workers, their families and communities, 

which means that people can thrive while 

being able to work, he added. 

“We have to be as ambitious as the 

Rochdale Pioneers were,” he added, 

calling on co-ops to work with social 

movements to reach people who are 

struggling over housing, food, or 

environment. 

John Evans from Code Operative, a 

network of freelance software developers 

based in the North East, mentioned some 

of the advantages that worker co-ops have 

during crises, such as being less likely to 

take on debt or downsize at the first sign 

of trouble. Worker co-ops are more likely 

to reorganise work than lay off members, 

all of whom are indispensable. He said 

worker co-ops offered more freedom to 

p Rose Marley 

discuss options and bring up retraining to 

remain sustainable. Another advantage of 

being part of a worker co-op is, according 

to him, joining a movement. 

“Co-ops don’t exist in a vacuum, they 

work with other organisations, creating 

networks of solidarity such as Cotech,” he 

said. He explained how Cotech had been 

set up five years ago, at a time when the 

tech sector was struggling to cope with the 

impact of the gig economy, with agencies 

taking commissions and contractors not 

being paid enough. 

Code Operative coped well with the 

pandemic, adapting by introducing 

remote working. Maintaining social 

relations was challenging but learning 

how to respond to increased stress levels 

and the lack of social activities will 

increase Code Operative’s resilience for 

the next crisis, he added. 

RETAIL 

John Lewis warns of store closures after reporting £517m loss 

Worker-owned John Lewis Partnership 

warned of store closures after a pre-tax 

loss of £517m for the year to 30 January, 

down from £146m in the previous year. 

The retailer says it incurred exceptional 

costs of £648m, mainly from the write 

down in the value of John Lewis shops 

owing to the pronounced shift to online. 

Chair Sharon White said: “John Lewis 

shops are now held on our balance sheet 

at almost half the value they were before 

this year’s and last year’s write downs. 

Before the pandemic we judged that £6 

in every £10 spent online with John Lewis 

was driven by our shops. The ratio has 

fallen to £3 in every £10. ” 

After conducting research the 

Partnership will reshape its estate over 

the next five years, with an emphasis on 

destination stores to showcase products, 

alongside new-format smaller, local 

stores. It will also trial of John Lewis 

shopping areas at selected Waitrose stores 

and improve its click and collect service. 

But the hit to profitability means there 

will also be store closures, the Ms White 

warned. “Regrettably, we do not expect 

to reopen all our John Lewis shops at the 

end of lockdown, which will also have 

implications for our supply chain.” 

She said the Partnership would work 

to lessen the impact on those affected 

and called for a national effort involving 

government and communities to deal 

with impact of Covid-19 on the high street 

and jobless young people. 


RETAIL 

Southern Co-op strengthens its franchising operation 

Independent retail society Southern 

Co-operative has become the only 

convenience store chain to be a member of 

two national franchise bodies – as well as 

opening its 50th franchise store under the 

Welcome fascia. 

Southern – which has just been ranked 

in the top five independent companies in 

the Solent 250 listing for 2021 – has been 

growing over the last few years, and it 

recently became the only convenience 

store chain member of the Quality 

Franchise Association. 

Southern is also the only convenience 

store chain that is a full member of the 

British Franchise Association (bfa) after 

completing accreditation in 2020. 

Joel Bissitt, CEO at Quality Franchise 

Association, said: “We are delighted 

to welcome Southern Co-op into full 

membership. They provide such a 

valuable service to local communities and 

have gone above and beyond throughout 

the pandemic. Their values including that 

of community are very much aligned with 

ours and we look forward to working with 

the team in the coming years.” 

Southern-currently partners with 24 

franchisees that operate 51 stores from 

Devon to Kent and into central London. 

Franchise business manager Mike 

Fitton said: “Every person who is part 

of our franchise family is passionate 

about what they do and it shows. Our 

franchisees enjoy giving back to their 

local communities.” 

The co-op says its franchise team 

offers retailers extensive personalised 

support with access to specialists in 

merchandising, artwork, planning, space 

and sales analysis. 

In another development, Southern 

announced it is leaving the Affinity 

membership card scheme which runs 

between different retail co-ops. 

On its website, the society said: “From 1 

April 2021 you will not be able to use your 

Southern Co-op membership card in other 

co-op society stores (Co-op Group, Central 

England, Midcounties and Chelmsford 

Star) to earn Share of the Profits points.” 

AGRICULTURE 

First Milk pledges to go zero carbon by 2040 

Dairy co-op First Milk has announced 

new sustainability initiatives as part of its 

First4Milk sustainability plan, including 

a commitment to go zero-carbon by 2040. 

The zero carbon pledge also commits to 

reduce carbon footprint at farm level by 

50% by 2030 and achieve net zero in milk 

transport and processing by 2035. 

First Milk also plans to sequester 

100,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum on 

members’ farms by 2025 

The amount of milk from raised from 

forage will increase 10% by 2025 to reduce 

members’ reliance on imported feeds. 

And the farmer-owned co-op wants all 

transport and processing activity to be 

using renewable fuel sources by 2030 

It also plans to reduce antibiotic use by 

a further 10% by 2025. 

The co-op says these commitments 

will be achieved by continuing to drive 

carbon efficiency throughout its logistics 

and manufacturing operations, as well 

as a major focus on working with its 

members on the adoption of regenerative 

agricultural practices to enhance and 

quantify soil carbon sequestration. 

CEO Shelagh Hancock said: “In 2019 

we launched our First4Milk programme, 

which set out a range of commitments to 

ensure we protect and enhance the global 

environment we all share. When it comes 

to climate change, our existing targets 

around carbon emissions were already 

stretching. 

“Dairy farming and food manufacturing 

are seen as carbon-intensive activities 

and we know that this is coming under 

increasing scrutiny across the food chains. 

These commitments set out the shape of 

our journey towards net zero.” 

Sustainability director Mark Brooking 

added: “As a co-operative business we 

exist to deliver long-term security and 

prosperity for our dairy farmer owners. We 

truly believe that the only way this can be 

delivered is if we work together to address 

the sustainability challenges we face. 

“Our farmer members have already 

committed to grazing their cows, and 

we will build on this by becoming the 

champion for regenerative agriculture in 

dairy, working with our members using 

climate-friendly farming practices to 

improve soil health, enhance biodiversity, 

improve water quality and enhance 

productivity while sequestering significant 

quantities of carbon in the soil.” 

First Milk is also launching an 

environmental offset scheme at its 

Lake District Creamery to protect local 

watercourses. The scheme will see around 

30 farmer members working adjust their 

farming practices to reduce nitrate, 

phosphate and sediment discharge. 


HOUSING 

Sheltered housing 

co-op set up for elderly 

LGBT+ in London 

The Greater London Authority has 

agreed a £5.7m loan to Tonic Housing, a 

community-led housing project for older 

LGBT+ people. 

The Lambeth development – the UK’s 

first dedicated housing project for older 

LGBT+ people – is set to open this year, 

with the backing of the Greater London 

Authority’s Community-led Housing Hub. 

Tonic, a community benefit society, 

was established in 2014 to address 

the loneliness, isolation and housing 

needs of older LGBT+ people, to provide 

accommodation and safe social spaces. 

It chose London for its first project 

because the capital has the largest older 

LGBT+ population in the UK – an estimated 

145,000 people. It is also working in 

other areas, such as Manchester with the 

LGBT Foundation. 

It has completed the purchase of 19 

properties at Bankhouse, a dedicated 

older living housing development at 

Albert Embankment. 

Tonic CEO Anna Kear said: “We are 

making history, realising a long held 

dream to provide a safe place for older 

LGBT+ people to live well.” 

Labour/Co-op Cllr Matthew Bennett, 

Lambeth’s cabinet member for planning, 

investment and new homes, said: 

“Moving into specialised older people’s 

housing can be a daunting experience for 

anyone, but for LGBT+ people it’s also the 

first return to an institutional setting since 

school. ” 

He added: “It’s a powerful testament to 

the power of communities co-operating 

together to find solutions to the problems 

they face.” 

East of England Co-op gets green light for new site 

New CEO for Leeds Credit Union 

CDS launches inclusive economy podcasts 

Planners have given final approval to a 

bid by East of England Co-op to revamp its 

former dairy site near Ipswich. The society 

intends to put a mixed retail and leisure 

development on the three-hectare site 

now that Ipswich Council has agreed its 

proposals on access, appearance, layout, 

landscaping and scale. No tenants have 

been lined up for the new units. 

Leeds Credit Union has appointed Paul 

Kaye as its new CEO. The credit union 

– one of the biggest in the country, with 

37,000 members – says Mr Kaye “has 

a wealth of experience in the financial 

services industry having worked at a 

senior strategic level across a number 

of companies”. 

Co-operative Development Scotland 

(CDS), the arm of Scottish Enterprise 

which promotes company growth through 

employee ownership and co-ops, has 

launching a unique series of podcasts on 

inclusive business models. The Reset and 

Rebuild podcast series is free to download 

and subscribe to on all other major 

providers. 

Survey finds ethics are taking root in the boardroom 

Research from law co-op Anthony Collins 

Solicitors has revealed a shift in UK 

business attitudes, with nine in 10 UK 

businesses becoming more ethical. The poll 

comes after a number of business leaders 

expressed concern that treatment of staff, 

suppliers and customers, as well as their 

impact on the environment and society, 

could impact on a firm’s performance. 

Midcounties plans marketing boost for travel business 

Midcounties Co-operative is planning to 

market its holidays to customers who use 

its other services, such as food shops. 

The co-op says only 5% of its 700,000 

members buy travel from Midcounties. 

The society ran a pilot scheme last 

summer with holiday offers for food 

customers and hopes to target people who 

are already engaged with its brand. 


ENERGY 

New programmes, new projects: Community 

energy has the wind in its sails 

It has been a successful month for the 

community energy sector with a new 

funding initiative and progress on solar 

and wind projects. 

A key announcement saw the launch of 

yhe Next Generation Community Energy 

Peer Mentoring programme, which offers 

business support to the sector. 

It is managed by Co-operatives UK in 

partnership with Centre for Sustainable 

Energy, and funded by Power to Change. 

The organisations are also working with 

Community Energy England. 

“We are proud of the many 

democratically owned community 

energy organisations doing incredible 

work across the UK,” said James de le 

Vingne, head of Co-operatives UK’s 

Development Unit. “Co‐operative values 

and principles create the ideal conditions 

to collaborate and share learning. This 

programme offers an exciting opportunity 

to develop even more community-owned 

energy projects.” 

Up to 40 groups will receive peer 

mentoring support to develop and test 

their ideas on behalf of the community 

energy sector. Mentors will include 

Brighton Energy Coop, Brighton & Hove 

Energy Services Co‐operative, Carbon 

Co‐op and Green Fox Community Co‐op. 

“The successful groups will follow 

in the footsteps of the likes of Green 

Fox Community Co‐operative, working 

to supply locally sourced, low-carbon, 

low-cost heat and electricity and energy 

services to schools in Leicestershire,” 

added Mr de le Vingne. 

p A workman fits solar on the roof of Edinburgh’s Waverley Court 

Will Walker, programme and investment 

manager on community energy at Power 

to Change, said: “We believe communities 

must play a prominent role in the move 

to a net zero carbon society and there are 

huge local benefits in doing so. Through 

the Next Generation programme we have 

been able to support new schemes and 

bold ideas around the country that aim to 

deliver zero carbon outcomes.” 

Meanwhile in Edinburgh, installation 

of rooftop solar PV panels on Waverley 

Court, the HQ of Edinburgh Council, is 

almost complete, marking Edinburgh 

Community Solar’s 30th solar installation 

on public buildings in the city. 

The co-op, which has 540 members and 

works to put in place renewable energy, is 

working on projects funded by its ‘Phase 2’ 

2020 public share offer. Waverley Court is 

the sixth public building to be fitted. 

There are also new developments afoot 

in Wales, where renewable platform 

Ripple Energy has secured £1.1m in 

funding from the devolved government to 

help build the UK’s first-ever consumerowned 

wind farm, set to be completed in 

autumn 2021. 

A further £1.8m loan has been agreed 

in principle from the Development Bank 

of Wales which can be drawn down in 

the summer, subject to certain conditions 

being met. Ripple’s customers have 

contributed just over £1.3m to the project, 

on which they will see returns via savings 

to their household electricity bill. 

Graig Fatha wind farm, near Coedely 

in South Wales, will be owned by an 

initial 675 households who have already 

signed up. All members will receive green 

electricity directly from their share of the 

wind farm later this year, saving up to 25% 

on their electricity bills each year across 

the wind farm’s 25-year lifetime. 

Further households can sign up to the 

Ripple platform and purchase a share of 

the windfarm from as little as £25. 

Income generated from the Welsh 

government’s supported portion of the 

wind farm will be channelled towards 

initiatives supporting people facing fuel 

poverty in the local area, through the wind 

farm’s Community Benefit Fund (CBF). 

Sarah Merrick, CEO and founder 

of Ripple Energy, said: “We’re hugely 

grateful to the Welsh government for its 

involvement in making that a reality. For 

too long, people have been sidelined; 

now they can share the benefits of green 

energy direct. 

“This is just the beginning of us putting 

the power in the hands of household 

consumers.” 


CO-OP WOMEN’S 

VOICES 

20.04.21 

2–3pm BST 

(via Zoom) 

OUR NEXT EVENT IS WITH 

Helen Wiseman 

President, The Midcounties Co-operative 

Co-op Women’s Voices is a series of conversations with women in the co-op movement, 

who will share what has motivated them, what the challenges have been, and who has 

supported them along the way. Register online at: s.coop/2kiqg 

thenews.com/womensvoices 

The 2021 Co-operative Press 

Annual General Meeting 

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we will again be convening a virtual AGM, with 

further details – including those of director elections – to be confirmed shortly. 

Wednesday 30 June, 7-9pm (bst) 

In accordance with Rule 20 of the Co-operative Press Rules, any member may submit a 

proposal to the Annual Meeting of members in writing to the Secretary. The final timetable 

will be published in the May 2021 edition of Co-op News and online at: 

www.thenews.coop/agm2021 

The Secretary 

Co-operative Press Ltd, Holyoake House, 

Hanover Street, Manchester, M60 0AS 

secretary@thenews.coop

GLOBAL UPDATES 

USA 

Co-op movement welcomes Biden’s $1.9tn Covid-19 rescue plan 

p President Joe Biden (Official White House photo: Adam Schultz) 

US co-operatives have welcomed the 

adoption of the American Rescue Plan Act 

signed into law by president Joe Biden on 

11 March. 

The $1.9tn (£1.37tn) rescue package was 

passed by the House of Representatives on 

10 March with a vote of 220 to 211, and by 

the Senate on 6 March with 50 voting in 

favour and 49 against. 

National co-op body NCBA-CLUSA 

commended Congress and the Biden- 

Harris administration on the passage of 

act, which, it said, “takes historic steps to 

provide direct relief from the devastating 

impacts of Covid-19 and paves an 

equitable path toward recovery”. 

NCBA-CLUSA said the bill would help 

socially disadvantaged groups build their 

economic independence and resilience 

with measures including investment in 

co-operative development. 

The act also provides relief to small 

businesses through the State Small 

Business Credit Initiative, which will 

see community lenders – including 

credit unions, community development 

financial institutions (CDFIs) and minority 

depository institutions – administer 

support to small businesses as they 

weather the pandemic. 

“This legislation makes clear that 

policymakers understand the importance 

of co-operatives in the US economy and 

as a tool to empower more people to own, 

control and benefit from the businesses 

they use,” said Doug O’Brien, president 

and CEO of NCBA-CLUSA. “Co-operatives 

build a more inclusive and equitable 

economy for all people.” 

The National Association of Federally 

Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) supported 

the bill’s provisions around helping small 

businesses survive and recover from 

the pandemic and provide assistance to 

homeowners and renters. NAFCU had 

called on lawmakers to include additional 

tools to enable credit unions to better 

serve their members facing financial 

hardships and will continue to advocate 

on these issues. 

While the bill expands some tax credits 

and provides another round of economic 

impact payments (EIPs) up to $1,400, 

NAFCU called for the stimulus payments 

to be exempt from garnishment to ensure 

those most in need who may have their 

bank accounts frozen by garnishment 

orders are able to access their funds. 

The apex also joined other financial 

industry trade and consumer groups 

in asking Congress to pass stand-alone 

legislation to address the issue and has 

sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet 

Yellen urging her to support this action. 

The act provides an additional $4.5bn 

in emergency funding for the Low- 

Income Home Energy Assistance Program 

(LIHEAP) to pay for home heating and 

cooling for low-income households. 

The National Rural Electric Cooperative 

Association (NRECA) had asked Congress 

to increase LIHEAP funding by $10bn. 

An additional $21.5bn in funding will be 

allocated for emergency rental assistance, 

which helps people pay their rent and 

utility bills. Further support will be 

available to homeowners affected by the 

pandemic via a new $10bn programme to 

help them pay their mortgage, utility and 

internet bills. 

“This package provides some muchneeded 

relief to co-op consumer-members 

who have suffered job losses and other 

economic devastation caused by the 

pandemic,” Louis Finkel, NRECA’s senior 

vice president of government relations, 

said in press release. 

A $7.2bn emergency connectivity 

fund will also be set up at the Federal 

Communications Commission to provide 

funds to eligible schools and libraries to 

pay for up to 100% of internet service, 

wi-fi hotspots and equipment costs. 

Restaurants affected by the pandemic 

will also receive support with $25bn 

available in grants. These businesses will 

be able to apply for funding to pay their 

electric and internet bills. 

Another $50bn will be allocated to the 

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

(FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund, which could 

support co-ops impacted by storms, fires 

and other disasters. 

President Biden said ahead of signing 

the bill: “This historic legislation is 

about rebuilding the backbone of this 

country and giving people in this nation 

— working people and middle-class folks, 

the people who built the country — a 

fighting chance.” 


p FCL's headquarters in Saskatoon, Canada (FCL) 

CANADA 

Pandemic hits profits at Federated 

Co-operatives with a slump in its energy division 

Federated Co-operatives Ltd (FCL) 

reported a net profit of CA$177m (£102m) 

for the year to 31 October 2020, down 

13.5% from $959m in the previous year. 

The group recorded revenues of $7.9bn, 

down from $9.2bn in the previous year. 

Meanwhile $117.5m of the profit was 

returned to local member co-ops. Owned 

by 190 co-ops across Western Canada, 

FCL says the results were affected by 

the disruption and uncertainty brought 

by Covid-19. 

“We expected to face economic 

headwinds entering 2020, but nothing 

like what we encountered,” CEO Scott 

Banda wrote in the annual report. 

The group witnessed record sales in 

crop supplies and propane, as well as 

a record year in fertiliser volume. He 

added that while the food and home and 

building solutions divisions also had 

strong performances, these could not 

cover the losses suffered in the energy 

business, where sales dropped by $1.3bn 

in 2020. 

Mr Banda added: “This past year will 

forever be associated with the Covid-19 

pandemic. We’ve needed to think 

differently and challenge historical 

norms and assumptions while ensuring 

we maintained uninterrupted delivery 

of our essential services across Western 

Canada. This year’s circumstances were 

extraordinary, requiring us to adapt and 

evolve, relying on one another and the 

unity of our Federation to manage through 

the disruption and uncertainty.” 

Sharon Alford, president and chair, 

said: “We faced significant challenges and 

drew on the strengths of our co-operative 

and our Federation to address them. From 

our people who demonstrate such support 

for one another and for our communities 

to our financial resources and our supply 

chains, together we benefited from the 

strength of our co-operative model.” 

FCL invested $8.1m in community 

projects throughout the year. Local co-ops 

banded together to deliver Co-op Helps, 

a campaign that allowed customers and 

members to nominate people who needed 

help to deal with the pandemic or those 

who were making a difference in their 

communities’ response to the pandemic. 

The co-ops sent more than 2,500 gift cards 

to nominees and shared thousands more 

messages from customers thanking all 

those helping respond to the pandemic. 

Last year was also marked by the 

ratification of a seven-year collective 

bargaining agreement at the FCL owned 

Co-op Refinery Complex, after a long 

dispute with Unifor union workers. 

“I’m proud that FCL and our local 

co-ops have confronted this year’s 

challenges head-on and we have 

continued to meet the needs of Western 

Canadians,” said Mr Banda. “Co-ops have 

shown new levels of co-operative spirit 

during the Covid-19 pandemic, tackling 

problems together while meaningfully 

contributing to local communities as 

demonstrated by our ongoing investment 

in the west. 

“We will continue to persevere 

through this pandemic by working 

together, supporting our communities, 

and adjusting to ensure the long-term 

sustainability of our co-operative.” 

The full report is available on FCL’s 

website: www.fcl.crs 


FINLAND 

S-Group praised for human rights policy 

Retailer S-Group was featured in a study on 

how Finnish companies meet their human 

rights responsibilities. 

The Status of Human Rights Performance 

of Finnish Companies, a governmentfunded 

report, found that while most 

Finnish companies are committed to 

respecting human rights, only a quarter 

systematically and publicly assess the 

impact of their business activities. 

“The situation clearly leaves room 

for improvement,” said project lead 

Nikodemus Solitander, “but the state 

of implementation of the human rights 

responsibilities of Finnish companies is 

largely at the same level as was found in 

the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark’s 

global assessments. 

“The results of the new study suggest 

that continuous monitoring has a 

significant impact on the realisation 

of responsibilities in practice. It is also 

important for companies to place greater 

emphasis on human rights issues at the 

level of strategy and management.” 

The assessment focused on 78 Finnish 

companies. Of these, 29 were assessed 

using the sector-specific Corporate Human 

Rights Benchmark (CHRB) methodology 

and 49 according to the indicators set in 

the UN Guiding Principles (UNGP). While 

the average score was 24.8 points out of 

100, S-Group received 40.80. 

“We have worked for a long time to 

ensure the realisation of human rights 

and responsible procurement,” said Sanni 

Martikainen, corporate responsibility 

manager at S-Group. “We are glad that 

our systematic work human rights work 

shows in the results of the assessment. 

“The study gives us valuable 

information about development areas. 

We continue to promote human rights and 

equal opportunities, and these themes 

are also emphasised in our updated 

responsibility programme.” 

The retailer’s practices are guided by 

a set of human rights principles, under 

which it examines labour conditions 

and supplier performance through third 

-party audits. 

The group’s annual responsibility 

report also provides information about its 

key procurement countries, audit results, 

the coverage of certificates and activities 

carried out during the year. 

Any suspicions of misuse and unethical 

activities can be reported through 

S-Group’s whistleblowing channel. 

The co-op also developed a radical 

transparency research model, which 

examines the root causes of human rights 

issues and is used in parallel with social 

audits at production facilities. The first 

study, in 2019, explored the production 

of tinned tomatoes in Italy, and found 

elements of forced labour, poor housing 

conditions and excessive working hours. 

The findings were presented during 

a webinar organised by International 

Cooperative Entrepreneurship Think Tank 

in December 2020 to mark International 

Human Rights Day. At the event, Nina 

Elomaa, senior vice president for 

sustainability, said S-Group would engage 

in advocacy efforts for legal recruitment 

channels for migrant workers and 

continue to listen to workers and train and 

monitor and collaborate with suppliers. 

ESTONIA 

Coop Estonia pays €7m in bonuses to its 80,000 members 

Coop Estonia’s customers shared €7m 

(£6.06m) in bonuses last year, €6.6m 

(£5.71m) of which has been used to 

purchase goods in its stores. 

p The co-op’s Klementi Ärimaja building in Tallinn (Photo: Liilia Moroz) 

Bonus money collected by customers 

during a calendar year does not expire 

on a specific date but each bonus amount 

earned is available for the next 12 months 

from the time it is earned. Unused bonus 

money is reinvested in store development 

or donated to local charities by its regional 

co-operative societies. 

Customers can collect bonuses by using 

Coop Savings Cards or a Coop Pank card 

in Coop Estonia’s stores. Coop Pank is the 

retailer’s banking division. They can also 

earn bonuses when they shop online. 

The retailer runs a bonus system and 

a customer programme, with the two 

estimated to save consumers who are also 

members the equivalent of two months of 

groceries per year. 

Owned by over 80,000 members, 

Coop Estonia is the country’s largest 

convenience chain. Dating back to 1902, 

the group includes 19 consumer co-ops, 

which operate more than 330 stores. 


SWEDEN 

Retail co-op 

named the country’s 

greenest brand 

Coop Sweden was named the greenest 

national brand in a survey by the 

consulting company Differ. 

The research, which covers a range 

of industries, also saw the retailer’s 

Änglamark brand, which includes eco 

and organic products, named the greenest 

food brand for the tenth consecutive year. 

Coop Sweden was also ranked first in 

the grocery and banking categories. 

“We are very proud that Coop and 

Änglamark continue to be strong brands,” 

said Charlotta Szczepanowski, head of 

sustainability and quality. 

“The fact that we win awards as the 

greenest brands, we see as proof that 

Coop’s persistent and long-term work 

to offer sustainable food and services is 

noticeable among consumers. At Coop, 

we know that we must act sustainably in 

order to be perceived as sustainable by 

our customers.” 

She added: “This year, we look forward 

to launching Coop’s sustainability 

declaration on all foods. Through the 

sustainability declaration, customers will 

be able to see the impact the goods have 

on the earth’s resources, climate and 

society – we believe this will be a great 

help for our customers to make even more 

sustainable choices.” 

The survey was drawn from more than 

1,000 respondents across the country, 

aged 15-74. 

ROMANIA 

Renewable 

energy co-op bids for 

green power supplier 

Romania’s first renewable energy co-op 

has launched a fundraising campaign to 

buy green supplier Apuron Energy. 

Launched in 2019, Cooperativa de 

Energie plans to produce and distribute 

100% green energy. The acquisition of 

the supplier will be financed entirely by 

the co-operative’s members, in the form 

of loans with a 3.7% interest for just one 

year or 5.2% per year over five years. The 

minimum investment is LEI500 (£88.41). 

The co-operative has so far raised 23% of 

its LEI2m target (£353,653). 

Those wishing to back the fundraising 

campaign must first become a member 

of the co-operative and then select the 

desired amount for the investment. Full 

members can join for a minimum of 

LEI100 (£18.51) while investor members 

need to contribute at least LEI500 (£92.55). 

With the acquisition of Apuron, 

Cooperativa de Energie hopes to enter the 

market as the first 100% renewable energy 

supplier in the country. Apuron operates 

p The founding members of Cooperativa de Energie 

a solar power plant in Mavrodin, located 

in Teleorman county, in the south of 

Romania. The company supplies 40 GWh 

per year to 150 consumers, mostly small 

and medium-sized enterprises. 

Electricity prices in Romania were fully 

liberalised from 1 January 2021, meaning 

that regulated prices will be removed 

even for household consumers in an 

attempt to boost market competition. 

The co-operative hopes the liberalisation 

will incentivise consumers to switch, 

particularly those who wish to receive 

renewable energy from a certified source 

or with guarantees of origin. 

Victor Iancu, president of Cooperativa 

de Energie, said: “Our main objective is to 

facilitate our country’s energy transition 

to a market that is 100% covered with 

renewable energy, in which citizens play 

an active role.” 

He added that the co-operative aimed 

to become “an efficient tool” in reducing 

pollution by helping the switch to cleaner 

energy. 

“The more people join the co-operative, 

the greater the impact,” he said. 

The co-operative hopes to start 

distribution this year and will be looking 

to produce its own energy in the future. 


USA 

$2bn power bill from storm sees oldest 

electric co-op in Texas file for bankruptcy 

Disputed costs from the recent snow and 

ice storms have seen the largest and oldest 

electric co-op in Texas file for bankruptcy. 

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, 

which serves 16 distribution member 

co-ops that supply more than 1.5 million 

Texans, filed for bankruptcy protection 

in Houston last month, in relation to a 

disputed US$1.8bn (1.3bn) debt to state 

grid operator ERCOT. 

Its financial crisis came after the storms 

knocked out half the state’s power plants, 

sparking a shortage that saw electricity 

wholesale prices peak at $9,000 per 

mW/hr – compared with pre-storm prices 

of less than $50. The higher prices are 

meant to incentivise power generation 

but with no capacity to do so, 4.3 million 

people were left without electricity. 

ERCOT also ramped up service fees over 

four days during the storm, to 500 times 

the usual rate. 

This has left dozens of electricity 

providers sharing billions of dollars 

in blackout charges. Fitch Ratings has 

warned of potential downgrades to all 

Texas municipal power firms that use the 

grid and said storm costs could exceed 

their immediately available liquidity. 

In a press release, Brazos said: “Before 

the severe cold weather that blanketed 

Texas with sub-freezing temperatures 

February 13-19, Brazos Electric was in 

all respects a financially robust, stable 

company with a clear vision for its future 

and a strong 'A' to 'A+' credit rating. 

“As a result of the catastrophic failures 

due to the storm, Brazos Electric was 

presented with excessively high invoices 

by ERCOT for collateral and for purported 

cost of electric service, payment of which 

was required within days. 

“As a co-operative whose costs are 

passed through to its members … Brazos 

Electric determined that it cannot and will 

not foist this catastrophic financial event 

on its members and those consumers.” 

It says it will carry out a financial 

restructure and in the meantime remained 

committed to delivering its services and 

assisting those affected by the severe 

weather in their efforts to rebuild. 

The co-op also pledged to support “the 

orderly, fair and expeditious treatment 

and satisfaction of its liabilities” resulting 

from the crisis. 

“Let me emphasise that this action by 

Brazos Electric was necessary to protect 

its member co-operatives and their more 

than 1.5 million retail members from 

unaffordable electric bills as we continue 

to provide electric service throughout 

the court-supervised process,” said vice 

president and general manager Clifton 

Karnei. “We will prioritise what matters 

most to our member co-operatives and 

their retail members as we, and they, 

work to return to normalcy. We expect 

this court-supervised process will provide 

us with the protections and mechanism 

to protect and preserve our assets and 

operations, and satisfy obligations to our 

creditors.” 

The filing includes several “first day” 

customary operational motions in support 

of its financial restructuring – including 

requests of authorisations to continue 

paying wages and other outgoings. 

Brazos said it will pay all obligations 

under normal terms of business for goods 

and services provided on the filing date of 

1 March 2021 and thereafter. 

In his submission to the federal 

court, Mr Karnei said: “Brazos suddenly 

finds itself caught in a liquidity trap 

that it cannot solve with its current 

balance sheet. Brazos will not foist this 

catastrophic ‘black swan’ financial event 

onto its members and their consumers, 

and commenced this bankruptcy to 

maintain the stability and integrity of its 

entire electric co-operative system.” 

The co-op says ERCOT’s $2.1bn invoice 

is nearly three times its power costs for all 

of 2020 and has issued a notice of force 

majeure to avoid payment. 

The crisis prompted the resignation 

of the chair of Texas’ Public Utility 

Commission, DeAnn Walker, while ERCOT 

itself has been sued by the city of Denton 

to stop it levying further charges. State 

attorney general Ken Paxton has issued 

Civil Investigative Demands to ERCOT and 

other power companies. 

ERCOT has been contacted for comment. 

Electric co-ops weather storm, p32-33 


GLOBAL 

Woccu 

announces keynote 

conference speakers 

Four keynote speakers have been 

announced for the 2021 World Credit 

Union Conference (14 – 21 July). 

Hosted by the World Council of Credit 

Unions (Woccu), the online event is 

expected to attract more than 1,500 credit 

union executives from 60 countries. 

The conference will feature keynote 

presentations from digital expert Greg 

Verdino; diversity, equity, and inclusion 

thought leader Raven Solomon; marketing 

executive Bonin Bough; and AI strategic 

advisor Ayesha Khanna. 

Greg Verdino is the co-creator of the 

Adapt Manifesto, has advised over 50 

of the Fortune 500 and has held senior 

positions at half a dozen tech start-ups. 

Raven Solomon advises companies 

on how to address generational and 

racial barriers in the workplace. Her 2019 

book Leading Your Parents: 25 Rules to 

Effective Multigenerational Leadership for 

Millennials and Gen Z includes tips for 

young professionals seeking to transition 

into leadership positions. 

An award-winning marketing executive, 

Bonin Bough (below) is the host of CNBC’s 

Cleveland Hustles. In 2016 he started 

Bonin Ventures, a growth accelerator 

that connects the best start-ups with the 

biggest brands in the world to accelerate 

their growth. 

Dr Ayesha Khanna is a co-founder and 

CEO of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence 

solutions incubator. She serves on the 

board of Infocomm Media Development 

Authority, a Singaporean tech regulator, 

and is a member of the World Economic 

Forum’s Global Future Councils. 

Green farmers bag awards for co-op women innovators 

Copa-Cogeca, which represents European 

farmers and their co-operatives, hosted 

the sixth Innovation Award for Women 

Farmers on 10 March. The big winner was 

Nazaret Mateos Alvarez from Spain, an 

ecological mushroom farmer who works 

to eliminate waste. Immacolata Migliaccio 

from Italy came second. An organic 

farmer, she optimises the use of digital 

and AI tech in the cultivation of her crops. 

Co-ops more likely to have gender-diverse top teams 

The International Co-operative and Mutual 

Insurance Federation (ICMIF) has revealed 

that 25% of its members are led by women. 

According to recent research by the Swiss 

Re Institute, women represented about a 

fifth of re/insurance company executives 

in 2019 and only 10% of CEOs. Of ICMIF’s 

201 member organisations, 49 have a 

female CEO at the head of the organisation. 

Europe advances its plans to boost the social economy 

Social Economy Europe has published 

a policy paper that includes the sector’s 

main priority areas ahead of the release 

of the European Action Plan for the Social 

Economy. Due to be unveiled in the fourth 

trimester of 2021, the Action Plan will 

incorporate the social economy into the 

different socio-economic policies of the 

European Union. 

Morocco eyes a new generation of farming co-ops 

The Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture 

plans to help set up 18,000 new generation 

agricultural co-ops as part of a long-term 

plan to drive innovation and strengthen 

the sector. Around 1,100 public and private 

agricultural advisers will be mobilised as 

part of the initiative. The country is home 

to 25,700 agricultural co-operatives. 

Fonterra reports NZ$391m half-year profit after tax 

Dairy giant Fonterra published its 

interim financial results for the six 

months to the end of January, which 

show the co-op has had a positive halfyear. 

Fonterra announced total group 

normalised earnings before interest and 

tax of NZ$684m (£346m), up 17% from 

the previous year ($418m). 


GLOBAL 

Ideas to boost industrial and service co-operatives in Asia-Pacific 

A report on industrial and service co-ops 

in Asia-Pacific provides recommendations 

to help the sector thrive. 

The report followed a year of joint 

research by the International Cooperative 

Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) and 

the International Organisation of the 

Industrial and Service Cooperatives 

(Cicopa), the sector organisation of the 

International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). 

The study recognises the different forms 

of co-operatives in industrial and service 

sectors in the Asia-Pacific Region with 

the aim of understanding the various 

characteristics of these co-operatives, 

particularly around the different forms 

of work, employment, ownership and 

governance structures. It identifies 38 

types of co-operatives from 12 Asia-Pacific 

countries that are or might be considered 

as co-operatives in industrial and service 

sectors (CIS). 

The paper also provides a thorough 

analysis of existing systems and 

institutional settings around CIS and looks 

at the role of co-operatives in contributing 

to the decent work. 

Recommendations include recognising 

co-operatives, including CIS, as 

enterprises and enacting new legislations 

for CIS with a clear definition of CIS in 

line with international conventions and 

standards. 

The report also calls on public 

authorities in certain countries to 

respect co-operative autonomy and 

independence, abandoning paternalistic 

approaches or attempts to control these 

co-ops. Including social protections, 

providing employment rights and 

focusing on fostering decent work should 

also be top priorities for legislators in the 

Asia-Pacific region, adds the report. 

It found that a critical barrier for 

establishing worker co-operatives is 

the requirement of a high number of 

minimum founding members. The report 

argued that a minimum of 3-5 founding 

members is desirable to facilitate cooperative 

start-ups among young cooperative 

entrepreneurs. 

Other measures include the 

introduction of public policies that 

foster the development of CIS, such 

as indivisible reserves, financing cooperative 

start-ups with worker-members’ 

unemployment benefit and promotion of 

worker buyout. Authorities in charge of 

co-operatives across various ministries 

should also promote the co-operative 

enterprise model, says the report. 

Rather than imposing too many 

prescribed norms, the report recommends 

that public authorities develop monitoring 

methods for checking whether CIS are 

managed in line with the co-operative 

principles and the principle of decent 

work, and whether their decisions are 

based on their members’ democratic and 

responsible discussions. 

ICA-AP and CICOPA hope the report will 

be “an important step to make a full picture 

of industrial and service co-operatives 

at the global level” and help the cooperative 

movement to better understand 

and promote these co-operatives, which 

they see as important parts of their 

movement that deserve more recognition. 

The full report is available on ICA-AP’s 

website: icaap.coop 

p Seoul, KOREA (Image: Kim Jin Cheol) 


GLOBAL 

#Coops4dev report looks at young people and co-operatives 

The International Cooperative Alliance 

has published a new report on how 

co-operatives can help to address the 

challenges facing young people. 

Produced in the framework of the ICA- 

EU Partnership (#Coops4dev), the study 

covers 20 countries across four regions. 

The report is based on a survey of more 

than 420 young people, including cooperators 

and those less familiar with the 

co-operative model. 

In addition to featuring successful youth 

co-operatives, the report looks at the ways 

in which the co-operative movement can 

strengthen its support for young people. 

The study was co-produced by all ICA 

regional offices with the support of the 

UK's Co-operative College and input from 

the ICA Youth Network. The research 

focused on five key areas: employment, 

education, inequalities, engagement and 

civic participation, and entrepreneurship. 

Respondents suggested a number of 

solutions – such as the formation of 

co-operatives, in particular worker cooperatives; 

the development of skills 

through co-operative work, education 

and training; increasing access to 

capital including financial assistance 

for self-employment; increased 

access to vocational training; and 

increasing access to global information 

and technology. 

ICA director general Bruno Roelants 

said: “This study is a mind-opener, and 

its conclusions and recommendations 

provide essential food for thought to us 

all within the co-operative movement 

on how to promote youth co-operatives, 

youth employment and participation 

in co-operatives, as well as education 

on co-operatives.” 

Dr Sarah Alldred, international 

programmes manager, the Co-operative 

College, said: “It’s a privilege to have 

played a part in shaping this report. The 

practical examples of youth co-operation 

illustrated throughout highlight how the 

co-operative model offers creative and 

meaningful solutions to the challenges 

young people face. 

“Education is at the heart of embedding 

awareness of co-operatives, as illustrated 

in the first key recommendation – 

Improve Knowledge, where the report 

states ‘education on co-operatives should 

start from childhood, and continue 

throughout the lifespan. In wider society, 

the co-operative movement should work 

in partnership with external actors 

towards the inclusion of co-operatives 

in the curricula at all ages and at all 

levels. Knowledge should be produced 

in a democratic and inclusive manner 

and made accessible to all.’ I encourage 

everyone who wants to build a fairer 

world to read this report.” 

In light of the findings, the report 

makes a series of recommendations for 

co-operatives, co-operative leaders, their 

representative organisations, young cooperators 

and young people in general. 

These include supporting education and 

knowledge building on co-operatives, 

communicating the benefits of cooperatives 

more effectively; and building 

genuine youth orientated co-operative 

structures. It also calls for nurturing a 

real culture of co-operation, promoting 

decent work and employment, working 

constructively with other organisations to 

achieve common objectives and working 

to create an enabling environment for 

co-operatives and youth co-operative 

entrepreneurship. 

The full report is available at: 

s.coop/2kfx6 


MEET... 

Maria Eugenia Pérez Zea, 

chair of the International 

Cooperative Alliance’s 

Gender Equality Committee 

On International Women’s Day (8 March) we talked to Maria Eugenia Pérez 

Zea, chair of the International Cooperative Alliance’s Gender Equality 

Committee, to find out more about the committee’s work and the role of 

women within the global co-operative movement. 

THE THEME FOR THIS YEAR’S INTERNATIONAL 

WOMEN’S DAY IS “WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP: 

ACHIEVING AN EQUAL FUTURE IN A COVID-19 

WORLD”. HOW DO CO-OPERATIVES ENABLE 

WOMEN TO ACCESS LEADERSHIP POSITIONS? 

It is necessary to remember that co-operatives 

were the first organisations to give women the 

opportunity to be investors, to make them part of 

the production process, of the surpluses or profits 

of the companies and of access to credit. From the 

beginning, co-operatives have provided women 

with a position that has allowed them to have 

the possibility of accessing economic resources, 

property and means of production, but we must 

recognise that only in the last 20 years women 

have occupied leadership or visibility positions in 

many of the co-operative organisations. 

This has been the result of work and a process 

of empowerment, generated from within each 

organisation, a product of education, of the acquisition 

of political, economic, legal and family 

rights, which we women have obtained. It is the 

one that today allows women to have an influential 

position in co-operative leadership. In our 

case, we have had two women presiding over the 

Gender equality does not mean 

starting a revolution against men, 

but rather rescuing spaces to which 

we have the right to access 

International Cooperative Alliance, and we have 

significant representation in its board of directors, 

as well as in some regional boards. We hope to see 

in this century that much-desired parity in the 

management bodies of co-operatives. 

HOW HAS COVID-19 IMPACTED THE WORK OF 

THE ICA GENDER EQUALITY COMMITTEE THAT 

YOU CHAIR? 

Covid-19 has impacted the work of the committee 

because it has changed the dynamics of interaction 

and relationship, but it has also given us 

the opportunity to make use of virtual tools and 

technologies that allow us to continue to carry 

out our work continuously, and in addition, it has 

allowed us to reinforce communication and teamwork 

within networks. Through virtual meetings, 

we have been able to define the committee’s work 

plan and actively participate in events around the 

world that promote the visibility of women in the 

co-operative sector. 

IN ADDITION TO YOUR ROLE AS CHAIR OF THE 

ICA GENDER EQUALITY COMMITTEE, YOU WERE 

THE PRESIDENT OF COOMEVA, THE LARGEST 

CO-OPERATIVE IN COLOMBIA. HOW IS THE 

GENDER DIMENSION REFLECTED IN YOUR 

CO-OPERATIVE’S STRATEGY? 

I served as president of the Coomeva board of 

directors from 2010 to 2017. Although I am not in 

charge today, I continue to hold a high-level leadership 

position within the co-operative. However, 

in my experience as president of the council, I had 

the opportunity to implement the gender equality 

policy, the creation of the gender equality committee 

and the definition of economic resources for 


the execution of important actions, which raised 

awareness about the role of the woman within 

the entity. As part of this all the actions of women 

who, in one way or another, participate or belong 

to the co-operative were highlighted, from collaborators 

and women in management positions, to 

associates and their families. This experience has 

served as an example for many organisations in 

Colombia and in Latin America. 

WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE FOR CO-OPERATIVES 

THAT ARE JUST STARTING TO WORK ON 

PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY? 

My advice is that an analysis should be carried 

out within the organisation to evaluate the way in 

which the co-operative is formed. Subsequently, 

they should determine how the co-operative 

members (men and women) are being reached 

via services, since talking about gender equality 

means serving all people, but today we need to 

enhance the role of women in organisations, and 

offer services tailored to members. It is also important 

to have a vision of what co-operatives can 

offer to the women who belong to them. Then, they 

should create working committees, where, based 

on different disciplines and diversity, gender 

equality strategies can be developed. Finally, 

empower women and enable them to show leadership 

through their representation in management 

and advisory positions, achieving equal participation 

for men and women. 

WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED AS A 

WOMAN IN THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT? 

HOW DID YOU OVERCOME THEM AND HOW DID 

OTHER WOMEN AND CO-OPERATIVE MEMBERS 

SUPPORT YOU? 

In the co-operative movement I have had 

important challenges such as the lack of awareness 

of gender equality and its importance in 

organisations. Convincing my colleagues why 

it is important for women to participate, lead 

and represent in co-operative administrative 

and management roles was crucial to achieving 

empowerment in organisations. 

I managed to overcome these difficulties 

through education on gender equality matters, 

and by empowering myself as a woman within 

the organisation, as well as establishing strategies 

that allowed me to participate in different scenarios, 

I gained the support of other women to whom I 

explained what to talk about. Gender equality does 

not mean starting a revolution against men, but 

rather rescuing spaces to which we have the right 

to access. This has generated a significant change 

in the co-operative sector and in the organisations 

in which I have participated, as well as in the 

Colombian Association of Cooperatives – Ascoop, 

a leading entity in Colombia with 60 years of existence, 

where today I am the executive director. 

THE GENDER EQUALITY COMMITTEE WILL MEET 

IN SEOUL IN THE RUN-UP TO THE ICA’S WORLD 

COOPERATIVE CONGRESS. WHAT WILL BE ON 

THE AGENDA FOR THE MEETING? 

The Congress has the premise of the co-operative 

identity and the celebration of the 125 years of the 

International Cooperative Alliance. We need to 

remember the women who participated in the ICA’s 

great definitions and decisions. It will be an essential 

task that in Seoul we talk about the meaning 

of co-operative identity for women, why we are 

closely linked to the co-operative movement and 

we think that co-operatives gave us the opportunity 

to exercise business and economic rights and 

responsibilities; there we will ask ourselves how 

co-operatives have empowered women and generated 

leadership for us. 

This has built an identity not only for women, 

but also for the co-operative movement, since 

women represent 50% of the membership in 

co-operatives and the number of women leaders 

within these organisations is increasing. We still 

have a long way to go, but in this space we must 

think about the strategies for this task. 

THE THEME OF THE ICA CONGRESS IS “DEEPEN- 

ING OUR CO-OPERATIVE IDENTITY.” HOW CAN 

THE FIGHT AGAINST GENDER INEQUALITIES HELP 

TO ADVANCE THIS AGENDA? 

The theme of the ICA Congress gives us all the 

motivation to promote the participation of women 

as a co-operative agenda worldwide. To deepen 

our co-operative identity is to deepen the efforts 

that women and men have made throughout the 

history of the International Cooperative Alliance 

and that of co-operatives. 

It is necessary to discover what are the strategies 

and methods that we must implement so 

that women can be leaders and achieve parity in 

the co-operative sector that we are just beginning 

to see, since we could say that only in the last 

20 years women have been visible in the global 

co-operative movement. There is a long way to 

go for women to be able to achieve parity, and 

achieving that parity implies that co-operatives 

and the ICA contribute to the fight against gender 

inequalities that occur in our organisations and in 

our countries. That is why it is essential to deepen 

our co-operative identity to achieve equality in the 

leadership and empowerment of women and men, 

in a fight for what gender equality means. 


YOUR VIEWS 

PATRICK GRANGE 

Many of you will know Patrick who, after 

many years on the board of United Co-op, 

joined the Co-op Group board in 2007 

where he served as chair of the Co-operative 

Food board and as member of the Audit 

and Risk, Group Remuneration and 

Appointments Committees. 

For a few years now, Patrick has sadly 

had a condition called PSP (progressive 

supranuclear palsy, which is similar to 

Parkinson’s disease) that has affected his 

speech and his swallowing. Patrick has 

asked me, through his brother Peter, to let 

his Co-op friends know where he is* and 

to remember him. Peter has indicated that 

Patrick might like to get the odd card or 

written message as trying to ring him is a 

problem as he does not always answer his 

phone and if he does you cannot always 

understand what he is saying. Patrick will be 

79 on 6th December 2021. 

Frank Nelson 

Co-operative Group National Members 

Council, North West Constituency 

*Hollymere House Care Home, 72 Crewe 

Road, Haslington, Crewe CW1 5QZ 

A DAY OF REFLECTION 

[23 March] is #NationalDayofReflection2021 

so we wanted to share this image from the 

@coopnews in 1931 – produced by 

@CoopParty. Times were hard, but there was 

hope of recovery ahead in the symbol of the 

fertile land and the use of new technology. 

Co-operative Heritage Trust 

Via Twitter 

Have your say 

Add your comments to our stories online 

at thenews.coop, get in touch via social 

media, or send us a letter. If sending a 

letter, please include your address and 

contact number. 

Co-operative News, Holyoake 

House, Hanover Street, 

Manchester M60 0AS 

letters@thenews.coop 

OBITUARIES 

Obituary: Dr Eudes de 

Freitas Aquino 

“Sincere”, “humble”, “generous” and 

“deeply human” are some of the words 

colleagues used for Dr Eudes de Freitas 

Aquino, who died aged 72 on 9 March. 

Dr Eudes had been hospitalised over the 

past two months due to illness caused 

by an ischemic stroke in November 2020. 

A true character, he liked to tell jokes to 

put a smile on people’s faces and treated 

everyone equally, from executives to 

technicians and housekeepers. 

“He was loved by everyone on his 

team,” recalls Antonina Guarrella, events 

and office coordinator at the International 

Cooperative Alliance (ICA). 

A renowned kidney specialist, Dr 

Eudes was involved in the Brazilian coop 

movement for more than 35 years. He 

was president of the health co-operative 

Unimed Piracicaba and Fundação 

Unimed, and was advisor to the president 

of Unimed Federação São Paulo. Prior to 

that, he served as a board member of the 

ICA, president of the International Health 

Cooperative Organisation (IHCO) and 

president of Unimed Brasil. 

He had a degree in clinical medicine 

from the Ribeirão Preto Medical School 

in Sao Paolo, a postgraduate degree 

in advanced business management in 

health and an MBA in health services 

management from the Armando Álvares 

Penteado Foundation in São Paulo. While 

at the helm of Unimed, he was included 

in Forbes Magazine’s 100 Most Influential 

People in Brazil, his co-op being the only 

one to have a representative on the list. 

He was also featured in the Healthcare 

Management magazine’s list of the 100 

most influential people in the healthcare 

sector in Brazil. 

“A man of humility, he was always kind, 

generous and very supportive,” said IHCO 

in its tribute. “He will long be remembered 

with respect and gratitude.” 

ICA president Ariel Guarco said: 

“His leadership and dedication left an 

indelible and lasting mark not only in the 

contemporary history of the Brazilian cooperative 

health movement, but also in the 

history of the relationship between Brazil 

and the international co-op movement. 

“Eudes de Freitas Aquino was a great 

supporter of the cause of the co-operative 

movement. With wisdom and foresight he 

made great contributions to promoting cooperative 

values and principles. Like many 

co-operators, I am personally grateful for 

his firm support, always tinged with hope 

and humanism.” 


Obituary: Stan Newens, 

co-operator who served 

the movement as MP 

and MEP 

Arthur Stanley (Stan) Newens, who has 

died at the age of 91, was a committed cooperator 

and life-long advocate of social 

justice who took the co-operative cause 

to both the House of Commons and the 

European Parliament. 

Born in Bethnal Green in London’s 

East End in 1930, he was proud of having 

been born within the sound of Bow Bells, 

making him a genuine Cockney. 

When he was nine, his family moved to 

North Weald, near Epping in Essex – on 

the fringe of the conurbation and close 

enough to see the city ablaze during the 

Blitz and to know the fear of the doodlebug 

flying bombs. 

At school, Mr Newens grew increasingly 

interested in politics. After Labour’s 

victory in the 1945 general election, he 

started to take an interest in socialism and 

moved to the left. 

At university he became increasingly 

more political and opposed the Korean war 

so strongly that, rather than undergoing 

two years military national service, he 

opted to work for four years as a miner in 

North Staffordshire. 

His time as a miner taught him much 

about the lives of working people and 

the details of political and trades union 

organisation. He also met Ann, his first 

wife and, after completing his four years 

in 1956, they moved back to North Weald 

where he became a history teacher in 

London. 

In 1961 he was selected by the Labour 

Party to stand in the Epping constituency 

at the next election. Sadly, Ann died in 

1962 leaving him with two daughters to 

look after. However, he continued his 

candidacy and in 1964 was elected by a 

small majority as MP for Epping. It was 

one of the late victories which secured 

Labour’s slim overall majority, enabling 

Harold Wilson to become prime minister. 

Worried about his pupils facing their A 

levels, Mr Newens continued to teach part 

time to see them through their exams. 

In 1970, he lost his seat in Parliament 

and returned to teaching – while 

maintaining an interest in the cooperative 

movement which culminated 

in his election as president of the London 

Co-operative Society. He was dismayed 

to find the society facing bankruptcy. 

He was in favour of a merger of all the 

London societies to create a single cooperative 

presence in the capital. Longterm, 

he argued for a national society and 

the amalgamation of Co-operative Retail 

Services and the Co-operative Wholesale 

Society, which eventually happened, 

but not until 2007. In the meantime, LCS 

became part of CRS, leaving him free to 

focus on his political commitments. 

Mr Newens was re-elected to 

Parliament, for Harlow, in February 

1974, this time standing as a Labour/ 

Co-operative candidate; in the October 

1974 general election he increased his 

majority. He continued to actively support 

the trades union movement during 

a time of strained relations with the 

Labour government, which led to some 

difficulties with his colleagues. He also 

continued his commitment to working for 

peace and socialism on an international 

scale, leading him to accept the chair of 

Liberation, formerly the Movement for 

Colonial Freedom. 

His internationalism led him to take 

an interest in the work of the European 

Union, then called the Common Market. 

After losing his Commons seat in 1983, he 

was elected to the European Parliament 

the following year, again standing as 

Labour/Co-operative candidate. There he 

became a respected voice on the struggles 

of working people throughout the world, 

particularly in South and Central America. 

In 1999 he retired as an MEP and devoted 

his time to following his love of history, 

writing (including an autobiography), 

and actively supporting local communitybased 

organisations. 

In 1966 he married Sandra. He had five 

children, one of whom, Sarah is an Eastern 

Region representative on the National 

Members’ Council of the Co-operative 

Group. 


The future has arrived 

– so where do retail co-ops fit in? 

Miles Hadfield 

Debbie Robinson – 

pictured at a previous 

event – discussed 

Central England’s work 

This year’s Co-operative Retail Conference saw 

the movement assess its place in a world undergoing 

extraordinary changes, with Covid-19, 

advancing tech, Brexit, economic uncertainty 

and climate change all posing challenges. 

Delegates at the online event, organised by 

Co-operatives UK, heard retail perspectives from 

outside the co-op movement, with Nick Gladding 

from retail analyst IGD warning that the 

economic impact of Covid-19 and Brexit “will 

be permanent”, with a grim outlook despite 

economic growth predictions of 4-7%. 

The pandemic has brought mixed fortunes for 

retail co-ops, with a surge in sales and improved 

consumer trust, but also a challenge to their 

convenience model as shoppers moved to bigger 

basket sizes and infrequent shopping. 

Meanwhile innovation in the industry 

continues, with Sainsbury’s developing its 

Neighbourhood Hub stores, Morrison’s developing 

its store kitchen format and Amazon Fresh 

opening a fully automated London store. 

“Co-op stores are stepping up well” to this 

competition, said Mr Gladding, giving the 

example of Scotmid’s Kitchen format, offering 

flexible food-to-go menus, with daily specials 

and seasonal offers. 

There is scope for co-ops to develop their 

ethical shopping offer. Mr Gladding predicted 

that the COP26 climate summit – to be held in 

Glasgow this November – “will have a big impact 

on shopper behaviour”, leaving consumers 

mindful of the green impact of their purchases. 

But there are also economic challenges on 

their way, with shoppers expected to have less 

money in their pockets – posing the question of 

whether or not co-ops can compete on price. 

Mr Gladding says co-op retailers face “a 

balancing act” and need to “find sustainable 

options that are cheaper to deliver”. Money could 

be saved by cutting down on packaging – which 

would also appeal to eco-conscious consumers. 

Jo Causon, from the UK Customer Satisfaction 

Index (UKCSI), said the pandemic had seen great 

agility and innovation from retailers. 

“No one has stood still,” she said, adding that 

businesses will have to keep moving – offering a 

more immersive tech experience, and more local 

and community-based services. These changes 

will also mean “tough business decisions”, 

making good governance vital. 

Covid-19 has accelerated changes in the industry 

rather than introducing anything new, she 

thinks. Automation means shoppers will want 

faster transactions but they still need human 

interaction – especially during lockdown. This 

could mean guidance and advice on what to buy 

and how to prepare items. 

The pandemic has also affected people’s 

mental health and wellbeing. Emma Slaven, 

28 | MARCH 2021

from government arbitration service ACAS, said 

one in six workers has mental health problems 

at any one time but many are afraid to discuss it 

with their employer. She said businesses should 

recognise that everyone in an organisation has a 

role to play. Useful initiatives include appointing 

someone to look after the mental health of staff 

and to assess the impact that changes such as 

increased overtime could have. 

The pandemic has also accelerated trends 

towards digitisation. Rose Marley, chief executive 

of Co-operatives UK, said new tech – AI, 3D 

printing, robotics, 5G – present challenges but 

also offer “opportunities for co-operation”. 

Don Sodergen, from homeworking software 

business Yourflock, said the right tech would 

help remote teams perform more effectively. 

“Who is going to be empowered is the important 

question. Us or the big guys? With the right 

people and the right technology you’ll take 

over the world. Without them, the world takes 

over you,” he said. 

Collaboration is important to keep the co-op 

sector resilient through these changes, he added 

“Who is going to be 

empowered is the 

important question. Us 

or the big guys? With the 

right people and the right 

technology you’ll take 

over the world. Without 

them, the world takes 

over you” 

– but tech can drive this collaboration; co-ops 

also have the advantage that the new generation 

are values-driven and are using digital as a platform 

for crowdfunding and hackathons. 

Steve Murrells and Debbie Robinson – chief 

executives of the Co-op Group and Central 

England Co-op, respectively – said their organisations 

are working to use new tech to their 

best advantage. 

Mr Murrells said: “We’re excited by tech possibilities 

and we’ve been investing in them so we 

can connect with our customers … It’s important 

for our members that we use tech for good.” 

He added: “We need to run towards tech. 

Co-operation really does work but some of the 

issues we’re facing into are so complex and so 

deep-rooted we’re not going to solve them on 

our own. We have to choose our partners wisely. 

Collaboration is going to be the way we break 

through in tech.” He gave the example of Starship, 

which supplies the delivery robots the 

Group is trialling in Milton Keynes. 

Ms Robinson said Central England is working 

with Birmingham City University on sustainability 

and said co-ops should pool their resources to 

build a “fully digital co-op movement”, with more 

platform co-ops and ethical versions of services 

like eBay. 

“It’s ridiculous that we’ve got people all over 

the place working separately on the same problems,” 

she added. 

Taking the theme of the conference back to its 

opening discussions of innovative store formats, 

she also discussed Central England’s new 

stores, including its flagship site at Boley Park, 

which includes artwork, a cafe and zero-waste 

refill stations. “We’re giving members what they 

want in the most sustainable way,” said Ms 

Robinson – adding that the society aims to be 

carbon neutral by 2030. 

A similar mindset, of collaboration, consultation 

and concern for wellbeing, informs the 

society’s other goals, she added – such as its 

campaign for stronger laws against abuse of 

retail workers, its work on inclusion, and its 

efforts to tackle food poverty. 

Similar initiatives are being carried out at 

Midcounties Co-op, whose chief operating 

officer for utilities, Lizzie Hieron, said partnerships 

were being used to provide sustainable, 

people-centred services. The Phone Co-op is 

working with TalkTalk to provide environmentally 

friendly broadband services, she said, while 

the takeover of Co-op Energy by Octopus has 

seen the two organisations work with Westmill 

Wind and Solar co-ops to develop a community 

energy tariff. Power purchase agreements have 

been signed with local community energy generators 

in 90 sites. She said it is set to launch in 

April and “is about as green as a tariff can get.” 

Scotmid opens its 

first Kitchen store 

in Ratho Station, 

near Edinburgh 


New services could 

mean new regulation 

for larger credit unions 

Anca Voinea 

UK credit unions looked to a changing future at 

last month’s annual conference of the Association 

of British Credit Unions (Abcul) – addressing 

the aftermath of Covid-19, regulatory change, 

climate change and interest rate challenges. 

Speakers included Treasury minister John 

Glen, who reiterated the government’s commitment 

to bring forward legislative changes to the 

Credit Unions Act, to allow the sector to offer a 

wider range of products and services. The decision 

was announced in the 2020 budget but 

Covid-19 disruptions put back the timetable for 

updating the act. 

Mr Glen said the government had taken other 

steps to boost the sector, such as establishing 

Fair4All Finance in 2019 to allocate dormant 

assets money to financial credit unions and other 

financial inclusion initiatives. 

Fair4All Finance committed £5m to its Covid- 

19 Resilience Fund, which is supporting the 

affordable credit sector through the immediate 

crisis so it can continue to provide vital services. 

An additional £65m was allocated in May, 

together with an expanded Affordable Credit 

Scale-up Programme, which will directly support 

the growth of community finance organisations. 

The minister said credit unions should focus 

on innovating for the future. To help them digitise, 

in 2018 the government launched the £2m 

Affordable Credit Challenge, which supports 

partnerships between UK community lenders 

and fintechs. Serve and Protect Credit Union’s 

partnership with Credit Kudos, and Capital 

Credit Union’s partnership with fintechs Nivo 

and Soar, were each awarded £200,000 to take 

their ideas forward. “Being a steady traditional 

sector doesn’t mean there isn’t room for fresh 

thinking,” said Mr Glen. 

The government also launched a prize-linked 

savings scheme for credit unions in 2019, to 

Robert Kelly, 

Abcul CEO 


Robert Kelly (left) with 

John Glen, Conservative 

MP for Salisbury, 

economic secretary to 

the Treasury 

help people improve their financial resilience 

while boosting awareness and membership of 

credit unions. This saw 15 credit unions across 

the country launch prize-linked saver accounts. 

The pilot will run until the end of March 2021 

but the minister says several credit unions plan 

to continue to offer them in the years to come. 

A no-interest loans pilot was also confirmed 

in the recent budget, which will allocate up to 

£3.8m for a no-interest loans to help vulnerable 

consumers who would benefit from affordable 

short-term credit to meet unexpected costs as an 

alternative to high-cost credit. 

“If we do this well, we’ve established a new 

concept that can be scaled up in the years 

to come,” said Mr Glen. “I understand the 

importance of your goal of widening access to 

affordable credit.” 

The minister welcomed Abcul’s Vision 2025 

strategy, which argues that credit unions need to 

evolve, become more digitally efficient, and offer 

a wider range of services. 

He called on the sector to unite behind the 

strategy and suggested some new products – 

such as insurance or affordable hire purchase. 

With regard to amending the Credit Unions Act, 

Mr Glen said he hoped to bring more certainty for 

credit unions – but changes would also require 

an appropriate regulatory regime. 

He said the regulatory framework needed to 

work for larger as well as smaller credit unions 

that offer a more basic service. 

“Keep talking to us, keep working with us, we 

do want the same thing: thriving credit unions 

that go from strength to strength,” he added. 

Sarah Breeden, executive director for UK 

deposit takers supervision at the Prudential 

Regulation Authority (PRA), reassured delegates 

that the PRA intends a proportional approach 

to regulatory changes. She said the PRA would 

consider how to best tackle risks that may arise 

from offering new services, adding: “We want a 

credit union regime that continues to be strong 

and simple, too.” 

She encouraged credit unions to promote 

diversity and inclusion, embedding these into 

their organisational culture, which, she said, 

would counter the risk of group think on boards. 

Cybersecurity is also a risk. “You are cash-rich 

and liquid, which makes you a prime target,” 

said Ms Breeden, encouraging credit unions to 

share best practice and share economies of scale. 

Climate change is another danger area, leading 

to physical risks such as inland floods and 

rising sea levels; credit unions must also anticipate 

changes to government policy, technology 

and consumer preference. 

The Bank of England has been challenging 

larger financial institutions to tackle climate 

change. While credit unions have not been 

asked to meet these expectations, the PRA would 

encourage them to look at this. 

Ms Breeden told the credit unions to check 

their ability to cope with zero or negative bank 

rates, were they to be introduced. PRA has 

already engaged with credit union apexes to 

assess the sector’s readiness and expects the 

challenges to be minimal, she said. 

Abcul CEO Robert Kelly said the apex would 

continue to campaign for legislative reform 

while trying to represents all of its member 

credit unions. 

“We are pushing as hard as we possible can to 

get the best deal for the entire sector,” he said. 

He talked about the need to debunk the 

myth that credit unions serve only vulnerable 

customers, highlighting how the sector has the 

opportunity to serve a wider demographic and 

embrace digital transformations. 

Abcul will continue to engage with the PRA to 

ensure regulation remains proportionate after 

the amendment of the Credit Unions Act. 


Germany holds National 

Co-op Energy Congress 

By Dr Andreas 

Wieg, head of 

the National 

Office for Energy 

Cooperatives in 

Germany 

The event explored the 

future role of energy 

co-operatives and 

housing co-operatives 

in Germany’s energy 

transition (Image: 

DGRV) 

Energy co-ops are looking to strengthen their 

role in Germany’s Energiewende transition to a 

low-carbon system. 

How this can be done was discussed at the 

National Co-operative Energy Congress, hosted by 

the National Office for Energy Cooperatives at the 

German Cooperative and Raiffeisen Association 

(DGRV) – which has 19.8 million members – and 

the Cooperative Housing Federation GdW. The 

event was broadcast from the DZ BANK building 

in Berlin and followed by 600 viewers. Contributors 

included federal policymakers, members of 

parliament and industry experts. 

“Energy co-operatives play an important role 

in the expansion of a secure and renewable local 

energy supply,” said Thomas Bareiß (parliamentary 

state secretary at the German Federal 

Ministry of Economics and Technology) in his 

speech. “Co-ops promote and enable community 

involvement as well as direct participation in the 

Energiewende. With the 2021 amendment to the 

Renewable Energy Sources Act [EEG], we have 

once again improved the framework conditions 

for energy co-operative projects”. 

But the co-op sector is critical of new regulations 

of rooftop solar. “The de facto reduction 

of the limit for photovoltaic tenders will push 

energy co-op and other citizen energy projects 

out of the centre of the Energiewende. They will 

reduce the acceptance for renewable energy 

onsite,” said Dr Eckhard Ott, CEO of DGRV. 

The limit of 750 kWp still applies but for 

solar systems larger than 300 kWp, only half of 

the electricity produced is eligible for the EEG 

compensation (feed-in tariff). The other half 

can be either used by the operator or sold on the 

market. But the latter is hardly an option, says 

Dr Ott, given the low price of electricity on the 

electricity stock market. Thus the only viable 

alternative is to participate in a tender – and 

large suppliers with several projects have a 

systematic advantage over energy co-ops. 

“More support would have been possible, 

as the European Commission has explicitly 

obligated member states to promote energy 

co-operatives and other energy communities. 

Unfortunately, these European requirements 

are not yet reflected in the German Renewable 

Energy Sources Act,” said Dr Ott. 

Ingeborg Esser, chair of the management board 

of the German Cooperative Housing Federation 

(GdW), talked about the 2021 federal election 

in Germany and the major policy challenges in 

terms of energy, digitalisation and social affairs. 

“Over the next four years, we have to strive 

to build climate goals that are affordable for all 

stakeholders,” she said. “At the same time, we 

need to take advantage of the digital transformation 

in the housing sector and increase local 

energy generation from renewable sources. In 

this context, we are particularly pleased that 

work is currently under way to remove tax barriers 

for housing organisations. This contributes to 

a fair Energiewende.” 

In order to relieve the burden on tenants, 

including many with low incomes, greater 

participation of the general public in terms of 

financing climate goals is also necessary to 

prevent the threat of social inequality. For that 

reason, the government must make sure that 

required funds in regards to the federal subsidy 

for efficient buildings (BEG) are available long 

term. “If everyone would comply to the climate 

goals, the funding requirement would equal EUR 

25bn a year”, said Ms Esser. 


PROGRESS REPORT: CO-OPS, 

GENDER EQUALITY AND COVID-19 

A webinar from the International Co-operative 

Alliance’s Gender Equality Committee (GEC) 

brought together co-operative women leaders 

and UN agencies to discuss how the sector could 

further support women during Covid-19. 

“Covid-19 is reversing the progress made on 

SDGs,” said Wenyan Yang, chief of the Social 

Perspective on Development Branch of the UN 

Department of Economic and Social Affairs 

(UNDESA). She added that women were among 

the marginalised groups most likely to suffer, 

along with older people, those disabled, indigenous 

populations, refugees and migrants. 

The chair of the GEC, Maria Eugenia Pérez Zea, 

talked about her co-op’s gender equality policy, 

which has been in place since 2013. Based in 

Colombia, Coomeva invokes gender equality in 

its co-op statute and has also obtained a gender 

equality seal certification named Equipares, 

which was developed by the Labour Ministry 

with the collaboration of the UN Development 

Programme (UNDP). 

Prof Esther Givheru from the Co-operative 

University of Kenya, who chairs ICA Africa’s 

Research and Gender Committees, looked at 

some of the Covid initiatives undertaken by 

co-ops in Africa – from a Moroccan co-op producing 

masks to the Mozambican Association for the 

Promotion of Modern Cooperativism joining an 

awareness campaign on violence against women. 

In the Dominican Republic, a health co-op 

has been at the forefront of fighting the 

pandemic. Xiomara Nunez de Cespedes talked 

about Cooproenf, a medical co-op with 18,000 

members – which faced Covid-19 challenges 

such as stress from long staff hours, PPE shortages, 

interfamily violence and unequal access 

to digital technology. The co-op’s priority was to 

protect its members – it developed an economic 

contingency plan and decided to provide credit 

and advances to staff in need. 

Nandini Azad, chair of the ICA’s Asia Pacific 

Women’s Committee, called on co-ops to address 

gender-based violence which, she said, was 

closely linked to patriarchy. “The leadership of 

women cannot be decided by men,” she said. 

Women’s co-ops in India suffered losses due to 

the pandemic but the majority did not shut their 

businesses, she added. Instead they adopted 

new strategies, such as digital technologies, with 

some providing digital training to enable women 

members to access loans. Ms Azan called for 

more gender disaggregated data to assess issues 

such as the impact of Covid-19 on women’s 

income and incidents of domestic violence. 

In Sweden, We Effect, an NGO set up by the 

country’s co-operative movement 60 years ago, 

is driving gender equality by actively asking 

partner organisations to present projects with a 

gender element. We Effect has led co-operative 

development projects in 20 countries across the 

world. Partners are also asked to report on the 

allocation of funding and what they are doing 

to improve existing disparities. The NGO also 

pledged 50% of all official development funding 

for projects designed to benefit women and girls. 

Judith Hermanson from the International 

Cooperative Research Group of the US Overseas 

Cooperative Development Council (OCDC) 

shared insights into the difference co-ops make 

in Poland, Kenya, the Philippines and Peru, 

based on OCDC research. 

“The story emerging is quite powerful – 

women who are co-op members are better 

off financially than their counterparts, better 

connected socially and they are skilled in business 

and finance,” she said. Challenging social 

and cultural and institutional norms can also 

help to address some of the barriers women in 

leadership positions face, said the panellists – 

and co-ops can play a role. 

Simel Esim, head of the Co-operatives Unit 

at the International Labour Organization, said 

women leaders are in minority in some co-operative 

sectors, such as agriculture and retail. “It’s 

important for women leaders in co-op movement 

to call attention to this,” she said, adding 

that flexible hours, paternity leave, elimination 

of workplace violence and tackling burnout can 

help to address some of the issues. 

ANCA VOINEA 


Energy 

Can America’s electric co-ops 

weather another severe storm? 


The winter storms that gripped the USA in 

February have laid bare the strains in the country’s 

electrical system – in terms of its business 

model and physical infrastructure. 

Tropical Storm Isaias left more than two 

million people without power, and industry 

observers are concerned about the ability of 

the country’s ageing power grid to withstand 

further shocks. Popular Science reports that the 

older power lines date back to the 19th century 

and most of the grid was built in the 1950s and 

60s, with a 50-year life expectancy. Outages 

have been growing in frequency since the 1980s 

and, with climate change set to increase the 

frequency of winter storms and summer fires, 

steps are being taken to renew the infrastructure, 

with federal support. Last October the US 

Department of Agriculture announced £3.1bn 

in loans to 45 electric co-ops for improvements 

which will benefit more than 1.4 million homes 

and businesses. Upgrades will include the introduction 

of smart grid tech. 

Electric co-ops also face pressure to switch 

to renewable energy, and are being called on 

to provide other utilities, such as broadband, 

to under-served regions – and are at risk from 

cybercrime. 

The storms show what is at stake when the 

system goes down: energy costs for February 

2021 are more than those for an entire normal 

year. The crisis in Texas has already seen the 

states oldest electric co-op, Brazos Electric 

Power Cooperative, file for protective bankruptcy 

after grid operator ERCOT ramped up 

prices (see p18). Brazos says the move will 

protect its members from the burden of the extra 

costs. Other co-ops are taking different steps. 

D’Ann Allen, manager of member relations at 

Amarillo-based Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, 

told the National Rural Electric Cooperative 

Association (NRECA) that the costs will 

“unfortunately, be borne by our members”, but 

it will try to spread out the cost to ease the pain. 

“More than likely, it will take years,” she said. 

Meanwhile news station NBC5 reported that 

several customers from non-profit Navarro 

County Electric Cooperative had called in to say 

they had received electricity bills ranging from 

around $400 to nearly $1,000. 

NRECA reports that other Texas co-ops 

are suspending late fees and disconnects for 

non-payment, relaxing deposit requirements, 

offering deferred payment plans and delaying 

planned electricity rate changes that were 

scheduled to go into effect this spring. 

The crisis has left industry experts taking a 

hard look at the grid. Hala Ballouz, president 

of Electric Power Engineers, says a collaborative 

effort is needed to ensure the grid holds up 

against future disasters. In a LinkedIn post, she 

pointed to a number of problems – including 

deregulation, which has let to a siloing of stakeholder 

responsibilities. 

“Although these entities have processes and 

complex systems for handing off information to 

coordinate activities, we do not have the technology 

or transparency necessary to plan or operate 

a holistic system,” she warned. “The most 

significant disconnect today is between transmission 

and distribution on both the grid and 

resource level.” 

She says recommendations into outages from 

severe winter weather in 2011, in a report from 

the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and 

the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, 

were not followed. The regulators wanted 

“a focus on hardening the gas network and 

better generator weatherisation procedures”. 

And she warns that the current distribution 

system is not adequately digitised to allow for 

automated switching to spare supply when an 

outage occurs. “We currently further lack the 

tools that allow the utilities to quickly develop 

and update their disaster response plans to 

meet any situation that arises.” 

One solution, she argues, will be regulatory 

change that allows wire utilities to own generators 

or storage to boost their capacity, avoiding 

the need for expensive backup from organisations 

like ERCOT. 

“In the last two weeks, these same companies 

could have had very locationally critical 


esources to keep the lights on for those of us 

who froze in the dark. Additionally, many electric 

co-operatives are limited to the generation 

that they own due to wholesale power contracts 

they entered a long time ago.” 

“Tri-State’s refusal 

to perform the 

calculation required 

… is patently unjust 

& unreasonable” 

Elsewhere in the States, a dispute over one 

of these power contracts rumbles on, with a 

number of electric co-ops trying to buy their 

way out of deals with generator Tri-State. Seven 

rural electric co-operatives in Colorado, New 

Mexico and Nebraska have filed a complaint 

with federal regulators saying Tri-State is refusing 

to give estimates on how much it will cost 

them to leave. 

“Tri-State’s refusal to perform the calculation 

required … is patently unjust and unreasonable,” 

says the complaint to the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission. 

The co-ops want to leave Tri-State so they can 

switch from its coal generated power to renewables, 

which are cheaper and will allow them to 

meet the environmental demands of consumers. 

Tri-State sells wholesale electricity to 42 rural 

electric co-ops in four states under contracts 

that run to 2050; co-ops must purchase at least 

95% of their electricity from the association. It 

says the co-ops’ complaint “is premature, given 

the current status of the case in FERC settlement 

negotiations”. 

Other issues on the horizon for electric co-ops 

include cybersecurity. NRECA has received a 

US$6m federal grant to work with BlackByte 

Cyber Security and Referentia Systems on a 

new tech system, Essence 2.0, that monitors for 

cyber threats. It is now working with partner 

electric co-ops to develop the platform. 

Above: The cold 

snap comes to the 

Alamo in San 

Antonio, Texas 


Humanised healthcare 

Health co-ops continue to battle 

against Covid-19 

Anca Voinea 

The Covid-19 pandemic has put health systems 

under immense pressure, with some stretched 

beyond their capacity. Health co-operatives 

across the world have been working to remove 

some of these pressures and support public 

sector healthcare providers. 

In Spain, medical co-op Fundación Espriu 

provides health services to over two million 

people. As soon as the Covid-19 cases started 

rising in March-April 2020, Fundación Espriu 

made itself available to health authorities, to 

respond to the needs of the population and avoid 

the collapse of the public healthcare service. 

The co-op was quick to mobilise by increasing 

capacity in its hospitals, in some cases having 

to triple the number of beds available for critical 

patients. It also allocated additional resources 

and professionals, bringing back retired former 

employees on a voluntary basis. 

Fundación Espriu also set up a telephone 

information centre staffed by health professionals 

and open to the entire population, postponed 

payments from members affected by the crisis 

and offered financial aid to doctors who had to 

close their practices. Families of health professionals 

who had to be hospitalised or lost their 

lives to Covid-19 were also supported via a new 

solidarity fund. Throughout 2020, Fundación 

Espriu’s medical centres carried out 13 million 

medical consultations, easing the pressure on 

the public sector. 

“Our co-operative identity commits us to a 

humanised healthcare approach, with a vocation 

for service and a management model that 

places people at the centre. This is reflected in 

concrete actions,” said Carlos Zarco, president 

of the International Health Cooperative Organisation 

(IHCO), and director of Fundación Espriu. 

In Cameroon medical professionals from 

Santé Assurée Coop Ca, a member of the Health 

Cooperatives Association, volunteered to 

conduct health screenings at the entrance into 

the city, to try to prevent further contamination. 

Two of the Association’s members, Sodimess 

and Sante Assurée, led an awareness 

campaign to help the public stay safe during the 

“Our co-op identity 

commits us to a 

humanised healthcare 

approach ... that places 

people at the centre” 

—Carlos Zarco 

pandemic, and distributed masks and sanitisers 

to refugees at the Minawao camp. 

In Colombia the health division of COOMEVA 

co-operative treated 66,807 users with a positive 

diagnosis of Covid-19 and held 244,000 follow 

up consultations. Around 333,000 tests were 

carried out, and 300,596 Covid-19 calls were 

answered. The co-operative also provided over 

one million telephone consultations. Around 

6,898 patients were also treated in COOMEVA’s 

hospitals, 1,600 of whom had to be treated in 

Intensive Care. 

“The co-operative identity has been the 

essence that has allowed COOMEVA to act in 

the way it has done in the midst of the circumstances 

due to the pandemic,” said general 

director Gilberto Quinche Toro. 

The pandemic also encouraged COOMEVA to 

revise its long-term strategy to place a stronger 

emphasis on providing telemedicine and new 

technology to provide health services. 

Social co-operatives in Italy were also 

amongst the first to respond to Covid-19. Gulliver 

co-op restructured its operations and safety 

procedures, which resulted in zero cases of 

Covid-19 in its senior care home in Modena. 

Gulliver also redesigned some of its open spaces 

and closed common spaces to prevent contamination, 

and invested in training care providers 

to make sure its workers stayed safe. Of 

the 10 care homes managed by Gulliver, 50% 

remained Covid-19 free. 

Gulliver’s communications and marketing 

officer, Alessia Bellino, says the co-op’s two 


founding principles guides its activities: to 

take care of people and be responsible. Another 

important element of Gulliver’s approach was 

organising voluntary meetings to get feedback 

from everyone involved in the running of the 

co-op, from nurses and educators to elected 

members. 

In India, the Self-Employed Women’s Association 

(SEWA) has focused on enabling its 

member co-operatives to continue operating. 

A study by SEWA in November found that 

the average monthly household income of its 

members had dropped by 65% over the course 

of the pandemic, from INR 18,068 (£181) to INR 

6,313 (£63). Lockdown measures also impacted 

informal workers’ access to social services such 

as healthcare, childcare and insurance. 

To support its members, two of SEWA’s co-operatives 

(Abodana, a handicraft co-op, and 

Lok Swasthya Mandali (LSM), a health co-op) 

switched to the production of masks and 

low-cost hand sanitisers. 

LSM, whose members are mostly community 

health workers, runs three low-cost pharmacies 

in Ahmedabad city and provides 

health education and other primary healthcare 

services to informal women workers. Its 

members also act as insurance agents, linking 

women and their families to VimoSEWA’s, 

which provides micro-insurance services and 

products and sells affordable Ayurvedic products 

produced by LSM. Another one of their 

activities is conducting sessions to disseminate 

information on maternal and child health, 

hygiene, and communicable and non-communicable 

diseases, looking at their causes, prevention 

and cure. When the lockdown was imposed 

the community health workers could no longer 

carry out their door-to-door activities, so they 

turned to digital platforms such as Whatsapp, 

voice messaging and audio conferencing to 

disseminate information on Covid-19, raising 

awareness about the virus. 

Bhavnaben, a 38-year old health worker from 

Lok Swasthya Mandali shared her experience of 

joining the co-op in 2019 right before the start 

of the pandemic. “I had never stepped out of the 

house before joining Lok Swasthya Mandali,” 

she told SEWA. 

She got a job at the Ayurveda production 

centre after her husband lost his job and could 

not find another one. She needed the income 

to support their two young sons, aged five and 

nine. “I also had a daughter, but she had heart 

problems and died young,” she said. 

Her job makes her feel empowered. “Even 

if my husband finds a job, I will never quit 

this work.” 

The pandemic has also highlighted the 

importance of collaboration between the public 

health sector, the private health sector and the 

civil society. 

“Health has to be a social construction based 

on solidarity, complementarity and collaboration. 

The pandemic is showing that coexistence 

and collaboration between public and private 

healthcare favours better health outcomes,” 

says Jose Pérez, secretary-general of IHCO. 

He adds that in some countries co-operatives 

complement public health, freeing up state 

resources. Co-ops can replace the public health 

sector in states which do not have the capacity 

to provide services or where co-operatives can 

do this more efficiently. 

“In Spain, for example, the health co-operatives 

of the Espriu Foundation are considered 

part of private health, but they have been 

collaborating with public health for more than 

40 years, and during the last year they have 

treated thousands of patients with Covid-19 

derived from the public healthcare,” added 

Mr Pérez. 

As the pandemic continues, health and social 

co-operatives will continue to fill in the gaps in 

the provision of health services. 

Left: Fundación 

Espriu in Barcelona 

allocated additional 

resources and 

professionals during 

the pandemic 

Above: In India, 

the Self-Employed 

Women’s Association 

(SEWA) has focused 

on enabling its 

member co-ops to 

continue operating 


Housing 

Resilient communities through 

co-operative housing 


Above: The regeneration 

of Strand in 

Kirkholt is an example 

of RBH working 

closely with local 

partners to provide 

new, affordable 

homes and modern 

community facilities 

that will stand the 

test of time 

The co-operative housing model offers much 

potential in helping communities deal with 

crises like Covid-19, by embedding the values 

and principles in homes and neighbourhoods. 

But how has this worked out in practice? 

At Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) – a 

tenant and employee co-owned mutual housing 

society with more than 12,000 homes – a 

number of measures were taken to support 

tenants through the pandemic and the lessons 

of the crisis are being taken forward into the 

organisation’s forthcoming corporate strategy. 

Chief executive Gareth Swarbrick said: “Our 

experience of the last 12 months is that the 

underlying idea of our model – tenants and 

employees as co-owners, giving people a sense 

of responsibility and working together – has seen 

people co-operate to respond to the crisis.” 

He gave the example of local pantry schemes 

– food clubs which take donations from sources 

such as FareShare. “As of March 2020 these 

projects were serving 80 households a week. 

We scaled it up in April last year, working with 

tenant volunteers to increase provision and 

create Covid-safe working practices. By May, 

200 tenants households were benefiting from 

deliveries.” 

Figures from RBH show this generated £3,400 

of weekly savings for members from the 800kg+ 

of surplus food. 

“There was also a big response from our 

employees volunteering to do different duties,” 


says Mr Swarbrick. “Our repair service had to 

move to emergency and urgent only, which left 

other team members switching to delivery of 

food from pantries to people who were shielding. 

We didn’t have to ask them, people came 

forward with ideas and did things instinctively.” 

The society also mobilised its members 

community fund, with £90,000 made available 

since the start of the pandemic to support 

more than 20 projects and organisations across 

the borough. 

Veteran’s Food Co, a social enterprise run by 

veterans who have become chefs, partnered 

with RBH to provide meals to people who are 

shielding, and at Christmas ran a major project 

to provide Christmas meals to 980 tenants in 

independent living schemes. Meals also went to 

homeless people and those in hostels. 

“We’ve worked to develop and support these 

community-led projects,” says Mr Swarbrick. 

“There’s a culture of working with other agencies 

and local social enterprises and charities 

which goes with our whole approach of Rochdale 

people and place.” 

Another example is HMR Circle, a membership 

organisation for older people, set up in 2012 

after RBH provided seed core funding. It works 

to keep people connected and prevent social 

isolation. “During the pandemic it has provided 

a range of online activities such as lunch clubs 

and quiz nights to keep people connected. Before 

Covid it was about being physically connected, 

but now it’s about connecting people online.” 

Other projects distributed craft materials 

to hundreds of tenants, and afternoon teas for 

the VE Day anniversary celebrations. RBH also 

provided 3,000 Keeping Well at Home booklets 

in partnership with Rochdale Borough Council, 

offering information and advice to older people 

who may be isolated at home. 

“We worked closely with local authorities, 

social care and public health teams to identify 

people who need additional support,” adds Mr 

Swarbrick. RBH used calls, texts and visits to 

make contact with vulnerable tenants – which 

meant 500 calls a week at the start of the 

first lockdown. 

“We’ve got people on ground providing 

services and used our intelligence and links 

with local community to identify people who 

need help,” says Mr Swarbrick. “We’re checking 

up on people and triaging them if they need 

referral to services.” 

RBH supported the mobilised Community 

Response Hubs that provided emergency 

food, medicine, fuel payments and other 

services, and has been running a work and 

skills service throughout the pandemic. 

For younger residents, RBH has created 

5 Kickstart places, recruited four new apprentices 

since the start of the pandemic, and is 

working with Hopwood Hall College to identify 

suitable placements for students undertaking 

the new T-Levels. 

The society also supports Upturn, a local 

social enterprise which connects those struggling 

for work because of the pandemic with 

the Workers’ Educational Association, to help 

them access funding support. So far Upturn has 

worked with 20 tenants and supported a third 

on the route back to work. Online courses have 

helped 52 tenants acquire the skills they need 

to find work or deliver safer services through the 

co-op, and the New Pioneers Programme run 

with the council helps people find work through 

Rochdale’s town centre regeneration work. 

Tenants are also helped with financial and 

digital skills. “People being connected digitally 

is more important than ever before,” says 

Mr Swarbrick, adding that digital inclusion 

is crucial after the experience of the last 12 

months. RBH already has a Digital Equipment 

Bursary in place for tenants who are actively 

seeking work, and the society has supported 

the Digit-Tech Library – an initiative set up by a 

consortium of voluntary, community and social 

enterprise (VCSE) organisations that provides a 

loan service for tablets. 

This summer, RBH draws up a new corporate 

plan to work out what needs to be done to 

recover from Covid and deal with the economic 

impact as it unfolds over the next few years. 

“We’ll be working with our tenant representative 

on our strategy going forward,” says Mr 

Swarbrick. “It’s about retraining people, working 

well with others, and thinking of creative 

new ways of working, Often the best ideas come 

from the bottom up – people from the lived 

experience of our homes and working on the 

frontline – to help us know what to do in the 

changed world we operate in.” 

The co-op model helps drive this spirit 

through a sense of belonging and ownership, 

says Mr Swarbrick. “I think our lesson is that 

our approach makes people think differently 

about us – tenants use the word ‘us’ to describe 

RBH because they feel ownership. It’s about 

finding a range of ways for tenants and employees 

to collaborate and share ideas. 

“It’s been a way of dealing with problems 

since George Osborne’s emergency budget in 

2010. We have involved tenants and employees; 

the choices were hard but people understood 

them, and we stayed true to our principles all 

the time. When things get tough that’s when our 

approach comes to the fore.” 

“The underlying 

idea of our 

model – 

tenants and 

employees 

as co owners, 

giving people 

a sense of 

responsibility 

and working 

together – has 

seen people 

co-operate to 

respond to the 

crisis” 

—Gareth Swarbrick 


Finances 

Co-operative resilience in the banking 

sector: A European perspective 

Anca Voinea 

We speak with Nina Schindler, the new CEO of 

the European Association of Cooperative Banks 

(EACB) to find out how the sector has dealt with 

Covid-19. A trained lawyer, she joined the EACB 

in February 2020 from Deutsche Bank where she 

was MD. 

How were your members impacted by 

Covid-19? 

Co-op banks saw the effects of the crisis through 

their clients, with the lockdown representing 

an immediate loss of revenue or income. This 

resulted in liquidity shortages and loan repayments 

becoming difficult. March and April of 

last year saw a particularly high rise in request 

for deferral of payments. To remedy this, they 

put in place different loan repayment deferrals 

and moratoria – public and private. They also 

supported other government support schemes 

focused at overcoming liquidity shortages. It 

was a steep learning curve but made a significant 

difference to our clients. 

EACB members also had to manage the more 

practical effects of lockdown on their own 

organisations – reduced availability of staff in 

the beginning because of Covid-19 absences, 

how to provide access to financial services to 

those customers less agile with digital tools, 

and moving entire organisations to work in 

virtual mode. This created challenges, but they 

have mostly been overcome. 

“ These are the circumstances where 

the co-op structure shows its added 

value by supporting their clients as 

they are not based on shareholder 

value, but long-term customer 

relationships” 

—Nina Schindler 

Were co-operative banks more resilient 

than other banks? 

By now, the entire banking sector has mastered 

the problems quite well. Banks were able to 

provide solutions for their customers and so 

far helped to mitigate the economic downturn 

and its effects on customers quite efficiently. 

Certainly, co-operative banks tend to be among 

the better capitalised and therefore more stable 

institutions. Moreover, our member banks take 

a lot of initiatives to support their members and 

customers. Especially in the crisis, co-operative 

banks remain committed to fully supporting the 

local economy and try to act as stabiliser. 

However, we are only in the middle of the 

crisis and we have not seen the entire story yet. 

The economic situation in some sectors is severe. 

The exit from the pandemic and the corresponding 

end of public support measures may also 

turn out to be a difficult phase. I have no doubt 

that co-operative banks will be able to master 

the situation. Many companies, however, do not 

need a bank loan if they want to move on, but 

immediate financial public support. 

Does membership of co-operative banks 

generally increase during times of crisis? 

Membership is what distinguishes co-operative 

banks from all other banks. Although the 

figures for 2020 are not yet available, according 

to a recent publication (European co-operative 

banks in 2019: a concise assessment, 

Tilburg University) in 2019 we experienced a 

net membership increase of 1.3% to 86 million 

members. On average, more than one in five 

inhabitants in the 13 European countries under 

review is now a member of a co-operative bank. 

During the crisis, we have acted as a stabiliser 

and allowed customers to get through this difficult 

period. These are the circumstances where 

the co-operative structure shows its added value 

by supporting their clients as they are not based 

on shareholder value, but long-term customer 

relationships. We have shown our capacity to 


In the past year, swift action from regulators and 

supervisors was certainly key to ensuring that 

credit continued to flow into the economy. In 

some countries (e.g. Italy and Spain) public moratoria 

are still a reality – this should be considered 

and supervisory flexibility continued. 

As most countries come out of the most acute 

phase of the crisis, and a number of support 

measures are discontinued, it is key to avoid cliff 

edge effects that can lead to sudden build-up of 

capital needs or operational constraints. Therefore, 

action on the side of the management of 

non-performing loans (NPL) and provisioning 

could be helpful. 

Moreover, a wider reflection on the mechanics 

of the capital buffers’ system should be undertaken: 

it has been noticed how, despite supervisors 

releasing the buffers, banks were reluctant 

to bite into them due to implicit market 

perceptions and expectations. Finally, the EU 

is moving towards the launch of the legislative 

process to implement the remaining Basel 

reforms. These are anticipated to have massive 

capital impacts on EU banks. We believe that 

the implementation process should be postponed 

at least until the recovery is well under 

way and then take into account the very nature 

of EU banking and credit markets, which are 

much less geared towards capital markets for 

both institutional and cultural factors. 

Left: Nina Schindler, 

the new CEO of the 

European Association 

of Cooperative 

Banks (EACB) 

What are EACB’s key priorities? 

remain stable and that is what matters for our 

members in order to keep their trust and attract 

new ones. Since 2007, our sector has experienced 

an acceleration in loan and deposit 

growth (6.1% in loan expansion and 6.4% in 

deposit development for 2019) and that trend 

will certainly keep consolidating and developing 

after the crisis. 

How could regulators support co-operative 

banks to ensure they keep lending? 

Beyond what I mentioned above, climate change 

and digitisation are high on the agenda. The 

work of the European institutions on sustainable 

finance continues at pace. Co-operative 

banks highly welcome the sustainable finance 

project. With their large SMEs and consumer 

customer base, co-operative banks are well 

placed to support moving our society to a more 

sustainable economy and to accompany the 

transition at local level. 

Having said that, the European Commission’s 

sustainable finance framework literally requires 

all hands on the deck to bring on paper concepts 

practically and efficiently to the market. 

Additionally, the European Commission's 

agenda “to make Europe fit for the digital age” 

is moving full speed ahead. The digital transformation 

of the co-operative bank model, which is 

based on proximity to customers, is a key challenge. 

The many new technologies, such as AI, 

Blockchain, the cloud, APIs and the increased 

computing power that has become available, 

can help but also pose some risks that need careful 

evaluation in the respective policy debates. 

I strongly believe that our members’ experience 

during the Covid-19 pandemic combined 

with the EU Commission’s sustainable and 

digital finance agenda, provide an important 

foundation for further evolving the concept 

of “relationship banking” that characterises 

co-operative banks. 

Additionally, there are an upcoming number 

of reviews –including those of anti-money laundering 

legislation, consumer protection and 

financial markets legislation – that require 

our attention. 


Mutual insurance: 

Resilience for an unknown future 

Rebecca Harvey 

Insurance by its very definition is a person, 

organisation or idea thinking about and providing 

protection against a possible eventuality 

– providing resilience against an unknown 

future. For co-operative and mutual insurers, 

people are at the centre of this thinking. And 

the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance 

Federation (ICMIF) brings these organisations 

together. 

ICMIF connects values-based insurers from 

around the world to help them strengthen their 

organisations in a non-competitive environment 

– supporting people and encouraging 

organisational capabilities. It is the voice of the 

sector wherever it is most needed. 

“We're long term thinkers. We have a stakeholder 

engagement and a purpose-driven 

model,” says Shaun Tarbuck, ICMIF CEO. Part 

of this long-term thinking for him is the need to 

engage with the UN’s Sustainable Development 

Goals (SDGs) to create a resilient future. 

The SDGs are “the biggest gift co-operatives 

have been given in 100 years”, he says. 

“If you went through each of the SDGs, they 

are focused primarily on resiliency. The word 

‘resilience’ sits underneath all of them.” 

He highlights how the UN’s Sendai Framework 

– a set of common standards, targets and 

instruments for disaster risk reduction which 

acts as “the ultimate agreement from the UN on 

resiliency” – also sits across the SDGs. 

“Everyone should recognise themselves in 

the SDGs, but you don't have to pick out all of 

them – you can just pick the ones that you think 

you can do,” says Mr Tarbuck. 

In 2018, ICMIF had 11 members (out of 150 

insurers) who were reporting against the SDGs. 

By the end of 2020, that number was closer to 

30. “Mutuals are running way ahead of the rest 

of the insurance industry in terms of embedding 

the SDGs properly. Our members are collectively 

reporting back on all 17 SDGs. Two of our 

members are reporting on 13, another is reporting 

on three; it's all down to individual companies 

as to how they can make the impact, and 

how well. A lot of the time, that goes through 

the board. 

“For insurers, you have also got to break it 

down into the liability and the asset side – on 

“ If you went through 

each of the SDGs, they 

are focused primarily 

on resiliency ... the 

word ‘resilience’ sits 

underneath all of them” 

—Shaun Tarbuck 

the asset side, I’d point to the Net Zero Alliance 

initiative, which looks at how pension funds 

and insurance companies utilise their assets in 

a way that is best for ecosystems, societies, and 

economies, including investing in climate-resilience. 

ICMIF member Folksam Group in Sweden 

was a founding member of that. The SDGs bring 

it all together.” 

But Mr Tarbuck believes the SDGs are something 

that every co-op and mutual should be 

doing, not just those in insurance. He says shareholder 

businesses are discussing “stakeholder 

capitalism” which takes into account workers, 

suppliers and communities. “That is basically 

about embedding the SDGs,” he argues, “ and 

they are far better at PR than we are. We need to 

encourage every co-op to be doing this.” 

ICMIF is developing an SDG calculator for 

launch this year, which is being supported by 

the UN PRI (a UN-supported network of investors 

working to promote sustainable investment) 

and Swiss Re (which is doing the technical 

creation). It is also working with three of 

its members to make sure the calculator reflects 

mutual values before it becomes the standard 

benchmark for the industry. 

And the federation has joined the World 

Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) as an advisory 

association. The WBA represents organisations 

working at global, regional and local levels 

to shape the private sector’s contributions to 

achieving the SDGs. 


Left: Shaun Tarbuck, 

CEO, ICMIF 

Image: ICMIF.org 

The WBA was set up after Aviva, Index Initiative, 

the UN Foundation and the Business and 

Sustainable Development Commission were 

brought together by a common belief that the 

private sector can strongly contribute to, as well 

as benefit from, the global ambition of the SDGs 

and that corporate performance benchmarks 

are powerful levers for change. 

“We're doing it because it's the right thing to do,” 

he adds. “It's showing leadership in our industry.” 

This leadership can be seen across ICMIF’s 

members, who are working to build resilient 

communities around the world – particularly as 

the effects of Covid-19 continue. 

In the Philippines, for example, programmes 

to develop microinsurance have become an 

increasingly important lifeline for Filipinos 

during the pandemic – particularly those with 

low income and limited access to mainstream 

insurance services. 

Here, ICMIF member The Microinsurance 

MBA Association of the Philippines (MiMAP), 

also known as RIMANSI, has recently highlighted 

how microinsurance has grown from 

coverage of less than three million low-income 

Filipinos in 2007, to 40 million people in 2019. 

Much of this gain can be attributed to the efforts 

of microinsurance mutual benefit associations 

(Mi-MBAs) across the country. 

However, millions of low-income Filipinos 

are still uninsured and remain vulnerable. 

MiMAP, together with its 18 Mi-MBA members, 

has taken on the challenge of reaching out to 

Filipinos and has committed to greater financial 

inclusion with a target coverage of 48 

million poor and low-income Filipinos by 

2024. It is being supported by Citi Foundation, 

which works to promote economic progress 

and improve the lives of people in low-income 

communities, through a grant programme 

to help members adopt broader technology 

and increase the awareness and appreciation 

of microinsurance. 

In Italy, Unipol has led a project to help farmers 

adapt to climate change and increase the 

resilience of the Italian agricultural sector, and 

in the UK, Royal London launched new social 

impact commitments to make a positive difference 

for customers and communities. 

And last May The Co-operators (insurance 

and financial services in Canada) announced 

CA$200,000 in funding to support Canadians 

who are most vulnerable and impacted by 

pandemic. And in November, launched Pathways 

to Employability (P2E), a CA$2m Co-operators 

Community Funds initiative dedicated to 

supporting the employability of marginalised 

Canadian youth who have lost jobs or educational 

opportunities due to Covid-19 shutdowns. 

“Marginalised youth have been especially 

hard hit and some face additional challenges 

to employability that make them particularly 

vulnerable to these unprecedented unemployment 

levels,” says Rob Wesseling, president and 

CEO, The Co-operators. “The goal of the P2E 

initiative is to create a brighter, more sustainable 

future for youth and small businesses by 

taking an innovative approach to developing 

solutions to respond to the urgent unmet needs 

created by the pandemic.” 


Community 

Co-op Party chair Jim McMahon on 

building resilience 


Right: Jim McMahon, 

Labour/Co-op MP 

for Oldham West 

and Royton, shadow 

secretary of state for 

transport and chair 

of the Co-operative 

Party 

We speak with Jim McMahon - Labour/Co-op 

MP for Oldham West and Royton, shadow 

transport secretary and former leader of 

Oldham Council, about how co-op values can 

help the UK weather crises like Covid-19. 

How did you get involved in co-operation? 

All of the local improvements I tried to make as a 

councillor were rooted in the community. It was 

about improving the park, it was about trying to 

get a new school and health centre … And so by 

the time I was council leader, I brought along that 

idea of action being rooted in the local community. 

When Labour lost control of the Oldham Council 

in 2008, we learned that we’d become disconnected 

from the people we represent. And so a 

huge effort has been made to rebuild that trust. 

We framed it as a co-operative council project 

– how can you instil the values and the ethos 

of a co-operative into how it makes decisions? 

How do co-operative ideas make communities 

and businesses more resilient? 

It’s about the power of community to achieve 

change. It’s important that you have an empowering 

state, but nobody wants to have things 

done to them, even if it’s for the right reasons. 

We have seen a hollowing out of our economy 

where the value that we collectively produce has 

been extracted, often into tax havens abroad, 

or certainly into companies with no grounding 

in the local community, where people are seen 

simply as a means to an end. 

Co-ops are a different kind of enterprise that 

doesn’t extract value. And the evidence says the 

survival rates of co-operatives are stronger than 

any other form of business. 

How do you communicate this narrative in 

a way that cuts through? 

You could argue that the Tories have offered 

our narrative without the values – think of the 

Big Society, of levelling up, or even taking back 

control. People want to know that if you make 

a contribution to society, then their family and 

their community will get the dividend that 

comes from that. People work hard but they’re 

still not able to get on in life. And so people 

naturally look back to a past that doesn’t exist 

any more. The question for co-operators in politics 

is: how do you create an alternative model 

based on our values, but very much grounded in 

the future? 

How is the Co-op Party working with other 

organisations in the movement? 

We have sister relationships – with the Labour 

Party. We want to mainstream co-operative 

values, collective action and collective enterprise. 

The only way we do that is by being in 

the mainstream of politics. Then we’re working 

with Co-operatives UK to expand the sector. 

It's harder to land that narrative when so 

many people don’t really know what a co-op is. 


I would say a lot of people in government don’t 

know what a co-operative is – they think it’s like 

charity but it’s not, it’s business – but the way 

they direct their profits is different. 

How has the Co-op Party campaigned to 

overcome this? 

The Party and the movement really came into 

their own during the pandemic – whether it’s 

our campaign around free school meals, or our 

efforts to make sure food retail workers were 

considered key workers. For an industry largely 

supported by female employees, if we had not 

achieved that they would not have the support 

to send their children to school during the 

pandemic. 

I’ve been having meetings with Treasury 

ministers to make sure that co-operatives are 

a factor for the government – you’ve got to 

work across politics and make sure co-ops are 

supported. And there were very practical things 

– like changing the emergency legislation 

around co-op AGMs during the pandemic. We 

have been making sure that the movement has 

a voice in politics and in Parliament. 

In terms of food justice, what’s the longterm 

plan? 

Our plan has got to be that people don’t require 

a state meal voucher. What type of society are 

we where we put people in that position? I want 

people to earn a decent living through the work 

they put in. And for those who can’t work for 

no fault of their own, a safety net that supports 

them when they need it. 

How do we plan for future crises – the 

next pandemic, for climate change? 

For the co-op model to work in that way it needs 

to be at scale – which is difficult unless you 

have a government that understands the need 

for some foundational changes to legislation, to 

create a level playing field. It strikes me that you 

can never really achieve that kind of change, if 

you are having parts of the UK that just are falling 

behind their potential. You’ve got to invest in 

the structural foundation of the economy. If you 

did that with co-ops in mind, then you would 

deliver a quicker return – in a way that means 

wealth is not extracted from local communities. 

How do we build a resilient economy? 

While the foundational elements of the economy 

have been weakened, co-ops look more likely 

to survive. If you look at British Home Stores, 

and the way Philip Green extracted money from 

that company, it became a shadow of itself. 

At Debenhams there was massive underinvestment 

during the good times in online and 

digital. But with co-operatives, which aren’t 

about short-term shareholder gain, you’re able 

to take the medium and long term view about 

investment. 

How should the co-op movement put 

its support for the UN Sustainable 

Development Goals into practice? 

One way is the need to hardwire climate change 

into your plans. The green economy is a massive 

opportunity. If you invest in new generation of 

local public transport, in electrification, a new 

generation of supply chain improvements, you’ll 

have the benefit of realising our climate change 

objectives, you’d have the benefit of retaining 

wealth created in the community, you’d have 

long-term decision making. 

These issues will be a challenge 

for Gen Z. How do we engage with youth? 

It’s our job to educate people to understand that 

this is a viable route for people to set up their 

own enterprise. We work very closely with the 

Co-operative Academies. 

We ran a campaign that led to the establishment 

of the All-Party Parliamentary group on 

votes at 16. Now Wales is having votes for 16 

and 17 year olds in May. That’s a bit that really 

does make us stand out from the Tories who, 

I think, are narrowing down democracy. 

There are a lot of grassroots protest movements 

around the world. Is that something 

the co-op movement can work with? 

If people aren’t happy, they’ve got a right 

to protest; it’s a fundamental part of our 

democracy. That’s why we’re opposed to the 

Police Bill. I suppose the question for all of us 

in politics, is how do you harness the power of 

a movement that’s developing outside of mainstream 

politics? 

It strikes me that we don’t always listen, and 

we’re not very good at leading. For decades, 

women have been saying that this is their lived 

experience. And after the Police Bill passes 

you’re going to get twice the fine for taking down 

a statue than you will for sexually harassing 

a woman. And so when women say our voices 

aren’t being heard, well, frankly, the evidence 

says that’s true. 


New Town 

Where will Covid leave our towns – 

and the co-ops that operate in them? 

Susan Press 

As we tentatively approach the end of lockdown, 

measures like social distancing and working 

remotely are likely to continue for some time, 

with millions staying closer to home. 

Small towns and suburbs, previously deserted 

during the day, look set for an economic revival 

– and signs are that co-ops large and small may 

be among the major beneficiaries. 

Going online 

In a devastating year for the retail sector, the 

Co-op Group reported in September 2020 its 

market share during the first lockdown was 

7.1%, the highest for almost 20 years. 

Customers staying closer to home meant 

1.7m more households shopping at their local 

convenience store and underlying profit rose 

46%. The Group also stepped up its online 

offer. In August 2020, for the first time, Deliveroo 

customers were able to order from 400 

stores with a combined population of 27 million 

people across the UK – making Co-op the most 

widely available supermarket on Deliveroo’s app. 

The Group’s head of eCommerce, Chris 

Conway, said: “We expect on-demand convenience 

to continue to grow through 2021. We are 

investing in continued growth of our online 

offer to meet customer needs when, where and 

how they want to shop with us. 

“During 2020 the Group rolled out its online 

offer at pace, through our online shop and 

with partners. While on-demand grocery was 

already popular with a younger demographic, 

new shoppers were seeing the benefits of fast, 

reliable and convenient access to food. 

“With our physical locations closer to the 

customer and delivery times shorter, Co-op 

is uniquely placed to create an online model 

enabling us to benefit from increase in online 

demand. Shoppers valued their local shop 

throughout the pandemic, and with our online 

grocery orders picked from the local store 

we have seen on-demand fulfilment further 

maximise the value and, add to the customer 

offer of our convenience stores.” 

Last year over £15m in donations and surplus 

food was also given by the Group to local causes 

such as food banks and other groups. That 

closer partnership between the retail sector and 

communities looks set to endure far beyond the 

pandemic. 

Rethinking the town 

Jay Tompt is co-ordinator of Totnes REconomy 

project, part of Totnes Transition Towns project, 

and an associate lecturer at Plymouth University. 

“We are part of a network of towns all over the 

country aligned with the aims of co-operatives 

and people who promote them,” he says. 

“Covid-19 brought a lot of change for those 

of us interested in creating the kind of positive 

change we might all like to see: more justice; 

more ecological thinking; and resilience. It was 

a shock and unexpected but we were prepared 

to respond. 

“In many ways it is a 

huge opportunity but 

it will be harder to 

make a living. Amazon 

is hoovering up more 

of the spoils and high 

street businesses 

which are not able to 

change their business 

models will be 

marginalised” 

—Jay Tompt 


“There were offers of help from local entrepreneurs, 

our town council and many people 

formed mutual aid groups to help their neighbours 

with deliveries and other challenges like 

making PPE and masks.” 

Thriving co-ops in the Totnes area include 

the community-owned New Lion 

Brewery, which is still 

brewing 

“What the new high street will look like we 

do not know – maybe former shops working 

as community hubs and cafés with co-working 

spaces and other spaces where people can 

congregate with more arts and performance, but 

it remains to be seen. We are constantly looking 

for ways to support progressive, regenerative 

businesses to participate in the economy.” 

In Scotland, Scotmid Co-op saw an impressive 

43% rise in its Snappy Shopper online 

app during the first lockdown and demand has 

continued to grow ever since. 

Leigh Sparks, professor of retail studies and 

deputy principal at the University of Stirling, 

says: “The question is to what extent is it going 

to be a continuing sequence of lockdowns or 

will we accommodate and learn to live with 

Covid-19? That will be the issue for the next 

three to five years. 

“The best way to think about it is as an acceleration 

of previous retail trends. What we do 

not know is how it will settle down in terms of 

continued growth of internet retailing 

and major retailers 

closing 

Left: Visitors and 

residents enjoy 

Totnes’s access-only 

car policy over the 

summer 

craft ales, 

and the Transition Homes 

Community Land Trust, which is building 31 

eco-homes on a site near Dartington, complete 

with growing spaces and an orchard. 

Mr Tompt believes positive change can come 

out of the pandemic, but acknowledges the 

road ahead is going to be difficult. 

“Covid-19 accelerated a demise already in 

motion,” he warns. “In many ways it is a huge 

opportunity but it will be harder to make a 

living. Amazon is hoovering up more of the 

spoils and high street businesses which are not 

able to change their business models will be 

marginalised. We have a vibrant local economy 

here with lots of independent businesses – but 

there are still empty buildings. 

physical 

stores and buildings. 

M&S have already said they are going 

to take out the vast majority of their Oxford 

Street retail space and John Lewis is closing 

stores. 

“Where we might get to is a lot more mixed 

use with people living in city centres rather 

than purely retail. The thought that millions 

will travel every day to stare at a computer 

screen does seem a bit odd to many of us now.” 

He expects patterns of future commuting to 

be more mixed, with in long-term increase of 

home-working, and small independent businesses 

looking to open in smaller places. 

“The big increase in sense of neighbourhood 

or community was already there with a trend 

towards local convenience stores growing quite 

rapidly," says Prof Sparks. “They have gained as 

people see they were there all the time – these 

have been part of the local response.” 


A building for co-operative memory 

Liz McIvor 

This year, Co-op News turns 150. As part of our 

series looking at our life and times, Liz McIvor, 

museum manager, looks back at the first 90 

years of the Rochdale Pioneers Museum. 

Number 31 Toad Lane is famous around the 

world for being the first premises of the Rochdale 

Equitable Pioneers Society, and became a museum 

in 1931. During the Industrial Revolution, the 

building had been a woollen warehouse on ‘The 

Old Lane’ (in the local dialect T’owd Lane) and 

was re-used by several tenants before the Pioneers 

opened their doors in the winter of 1844. 

The group of working-class men only leased part 

of the building and eventually outgrew it altogether, 

opening a new Central Premises (now demolished) 

in 1867, 100 yards up the street. The new building 

was on a very different scale, costing £10,000 

and on four floors, with shops, offices, education 

spaces, library and board room– and topped with a 

hall that could hold events for 1,500 people. 

In those early days, visitors came from other 

towns and countries to try to understand how the 

Pioneers had succeeded and to learn from them by 

using their values and principles as a standard by 

which to start their own ‘co-ops’. The first page of 

the visitor’s book started by the Pioneers in 1862 

bears the names of pilgrims from Europe as well 

as the UK ,and went on to list visitors from all over 

the world coming to learn about the movement that 

began there. 

The lease on 31 Toad Lane was allowed to lapse 

and it returned to private trade – for many years it 

was a pet shop. But visiting co-operators did not 

stop wanting to visit the old store, and in the early 

20th century, the movement began to consider the 

importance of preserving the story, using the store 

as a place to cement co-operative identity. Visiting 

co-operators wanted to see the store as part of 

their trip, and the movement put together a fund to 

purchase number 31. 

The Co-operative Union eventually bought the 

building in 1925, and after business leases ran 

out, the CWS Architects Department worked on 

designing the museum space. It took a great deal 

of work to prepare the building as a visitor’s centre 

but the humble space would become a source 

of inspiration because it symbolised what was 

possible even in dire circumstances: it was opened 

in 1931, a time of great global economic uncertainty 

and mass unemployment, as a beacon of hope for 

the future. 

For many years, visitors to the Museum would go 

to the Central Premises up the hill, borrow the key 

and show themselves around or be shown around 

by a member of the Central Premises staff. Over 

the years it was staffed on request by the Rochdale 

Society and Co-operative Union, relying heavily 

on volunteer support in the later 20th Century. 

But work to preserve the connections to the past 

did not stop. 

Closure for major structural works was required 

in the 1970s, which was paid for by international 

subscriptions – but by the millennium, a different 

direction was needed. The role of co-operatives in 

UK society had changed and generations of people 

were growing up without an understanding of the 

identity of the global movement. It was clear that 

the museum could no longer simply be a shrine. 

A second reopening in 1981 was an opportunity 

to tell the story in a more public way, with what 

was left of the original Toad Lane becoming a 

protected Conservation Area for Rochdale Borough 

Council. The future of the museum would now be 

to work with visitors and local people to embed 

the history of the movement into the uniqueness of 

meaningful Co-operative Identity. The Co-operative 

Heritage Trust (CHT) was formed in 2007 by three 

major founders (Co-operatives UK, the Co-operative 

College and the Co-op Group), bringing together 

the museum and the National Co-operative Archive 

under one charity. Its role is now not just to care 

for the needs of the building, but to protect and 

collect records and objects which could engage and 

inspire new audiences. This includes every issue 

of Co-operative News since the first edition was 

published on 2 September 1871. 

Plans were made for the continued preservation 

of the museum to provide safe access and facilities 

for more people to use the building and collections – 

the ROCHDALE project in 2012 was supported by the 

movement and the UK Heritage Fund to install a lift, 

toilets, display equipment and learning space – but 

the work is not over. Keeping these heritage assets 

open and accessible for everyone is an ongoing 

commitment for the CHT and the ongoing support of 

the movement is vital for us to continue to use the 

building in a way the Pioneers would have wanted, 

to spread and share the values and principles which 

are at the root of positive co-operative action. 


Toad Lane in the 1920s (Credit: Co-operative Heritage Trust) 

Toad Lane re-imagined for 1944 Credit: Co-operative Heritage Trust) 

Toad Lane today 

To support the Co-operative Heritage Trust's work, including future conservation, visit co-operativeheritage.coop/Appeal/Donate 

or consider a legacy gift. Unrestricted legacies are especially valuable to the Trust as they enable the CHT to use your gift where the 

future need is greatest. Your legacy donation could be used to support: conservation; educational programmes and community 

engagement; important acquisitions and care of fragile documents; preservation of the fabric of the building; scholarly research and 

participation at international events. 


REVIEWS 

A how-to guide for the new municipalism 

Paint Your 

Town Red 

How Preston Took 

Back Control and 

Your Town Can Too 

Matthew Brown 

and Rhian E Jones 

(Repeater, £10.99) 

Co-op News readers will hopefully be familiar with 

the community wealth building model put in place 

by Preston Council in a bid to create a viable local 

economy and shield the area from the austerity 

measures that followed the 2008 crash. 

Now, from council leader Matthew Brown, 

writing with Red Pepper editor Rhian E Jones, 

comes this introduction to the project, which 

champions the targeting of spending from the local 

authority and other anchor institutions to stimulate 

the local economy. By favouring local co-ops and 

other SMEs they hope to prevent wealth from being 

extracted from the area by big outsourcers. 

It's a readable and efficient survey, taking in the 

electoral upheavals and global challenges of the 

21st century, the history of the new municipalism – 

rooted in the work of Spain’s Mondragon worker’s 

co-op federation – and examples of how the project 

can drive provision to meet different needs. 

While the Co-operative Councils Innovation 

Network – a group of UK councils of which Preston 

is a member – is a non-partisan organisation, Brown 

and Jones put it in the context of the left, from as 

the title onwards. “The principles and strategy 

underlying community wealth-building find a 

natural home within political projects built around 

participatory democratic socialism,” they say. 

But the idea is an adaptable one. “The umbrella 

idea of community wealth-building consolidates 

a set of principles which can drive adaptable 

strategies in different places,” they stress. “What 

we are seeing is not spectacular top-down 

initiatives, or the failed models of professionalised 

regeneration, but rather a wide network of diverse 

initiatives that fit the needs and resources of 

various communities.” 

They also put the movement in the context of 

rising demand for local autonomy; it is “solving 

problems from below without permission from 

above”, they argue. Many of those solutions are 

part and parcel of the co-op movement: credit 

unions, worker co-ops, community land trusts, 

asset transfers, community energy and statebacked 

development bodies like the Wales Cooperative 

Centre. 

And for those inspired to join the fight, it closes 

with a brief guide to local government – and advice 

on how to get yourself elected. 

Lessons from the frontline of co-op development 

Strengthening 

the Cooperative 

Community 

By E.G. Nadeau 

Emile Nadeau is well-placed to offer insights into 

co-op development: his experience dates back to 

1970 when, fresh from Harvard, he joined the Peace 

Corps in rural Senegal and discovered models of 

informal co-operation at work. 

While there, he suggested forming a co-operative 

marketing system among the fishermen of the 

village. Even though the project did not take off, he 

took home his new belief in the power of co-ops to 

solve economic and social problems. 

In 1984 he got a job helping set up a co-op 

development organisation in Wisconsin. Since 

then, he has been researching, developing, 

teaching and writing about co-operatives and 

community development. His work included a spell 

as research director for the US Overseas Cooperative 

Development Council between 2014-2015. He has 

been doing domestic and international consulting 

work for a range of co-ops and apexes. 

In this book, Nadeau explores lessons from the 

history of co-ops with case studies – successful and 

unsuccessful – from around the world, to present 

lessons on some of the key elements of sustainable 

co-operative development. 

This includes analysis of entrepreneurship, 

research, education, laws and regulations, finance 

and co-operative development organisations, 

all drawing on Nadeau’s enviable and varied 

experience. 

He also explores what the future might hold for 

the co-operative movement, arguing that “co-ops 

should shift from primarily playing a gap-filler 

role to instead becoming innovative, proactive 

leaders in building a more equitable and just world 

economy”. To do this, he suggests increasing the 

movement’s proactive development skills and 

reshaping it to meet the needs of the 21st century. 

While many co-ops acknowledge the importance 

of the climate crisis and international co-op leaders 

voice support for the United Nations’ Sustainable 

Development Goals, Nadeau says the movement 

has not done enough on either front. 

With its development lessons and 

recommendations for strengthening the co-op 

community, the book sets out practical steps that 

the movement can take to remedy this – to expand 

its reach and stay relevant. 

A must-read for development co-operators 

and community organisers, the book will soon 

be available through local bookstores as well 

as Amazon. It can also be downloaded from 

thecooperativesociety.org 


ethicalconsumer.org 

BES T BUY

DIARY 

With the Covid-19 crisis 

affecting mobility in the 

UK and across the world, 

many co-op events are 

now taking place online, 

including some of those 

listed below. If you would 

like to add any virtual 

events taking place, 

please email us at: 

events@thenews.coop 

How to build a data co-operative 

30 March 2021 

Open Data Manchester is organising an 

online event to help communities collect, 

pool and share their data for collective 

good, allowing people to have more 

control over the data that they create. The 

session will look at the concept behind 

data co-operatives and how it works. 

Participants will look at working examples 

and hear from Astha Kapoor, co-founder 

of the Aapti Institute, Bangalore; Hays 

Witt, CEO of Drivers Seat Cooperative, US; 

Julian Tait from Open Data Manchester; 

and Anouk Ruhaak, Mozilla Fellow. 

Co-operative Party (dis)Ability Network 

THE BIG CONVERSATION: High Streets 

12 April 2021 

The Co-operative Party (dis)Ability 

Network invites all its members to be part 

of this year’s Social Policy consultation 

process. The event will be the first of the 

party’s big conversations discussing the 

policies chosen this year for consultation 

by its members. The event will kick off 

with a facilitated discussion on high 

streets, which will look at how to rebuild 

the high streets of the UK, what disabled 

people want from the high street and how 

the values and principles of co-operation 

help the development of our town and 

city centres. 

uk.coop/events-and-training/ 

events-calendar/how-build-datacooperative 

party.coop/event/disability-networkthe-big-conversation-high-streets/ 

Webinar: Creating a more diverse and 

inclusive culture for your co-op 

13 April 2021 

Run by Jenny Holsgrove from 

Co‐operatives UK, the webinar will help 

participants to identify what they can do 

in order to foster a culture for diversity 

and inclusion in their co-op. The event 

is particularly aimed at those working in 

or with an interest in line management; 

worker co-ops; HR management; CEOs; 

senior leadership; diversity, equality and 

inclusion; board members; governance; 

learning and development or mental 

health. 

uk.coop/events-and-training/ 

events-calendar/webinar-creating-morediverse-and-inclusive-culture-your-co-op 

Just Film Festival 

18 June - 4 July 

A virtual social justice themed film 

festival is being organised by the 

Birmingham Co-op Film Society (‘Just 

Film’) in partnership with Central England 

Co-operative and Co-op News for Cooperatives 

Fortnight 2021 (see p10). 

justfilm.coop/festival 

Co-operatives Fortnight 

21 June - 4 July 

A fortnight of activity in the UK to 

encourage people to #JoinACoop. 

uk.coop/fortnight 

International Day of Cooperatives 

3 July 2021 

The International Day of Cooperatives 

(#CoopsDay) is celebrated annually on 

the first Saturday of July and aims to raise 

awareness of co-ops and promote the 

movement's successes and ideals. The 

ICA first celebrated #CoopsDay in 1923 

while the United National proclaimed 

an International Day of Cooperatives 

to be celebrated for the first time in 

1995, marking the centenary of the 

establishment of the ICA. 

coopsday.coop 

ICA CCR Europe Research Conference 

7-9 July 2021 

The International Cooperative Alliance 

Committee on Cooperative Research (ICA 

CCR) EUROPE will be holding a virtual 

conference in July. Themed “Cooperatives 

in transitions facing crisis”, the 

conference will explore and address 

specific issues linked to the overarching 

theme of the World Cooperative Congress 

(1-3 December 2021) of “Deepening our 

cooperative identity”. 

ccr.ica.coop/en/newsroom/news/ 

call-papers-ica-ccr-europe-researchconference 

World Credit Union Conference 

11-14 July 2021 

World Council of Credit Unions’ 2021 

World Credit Union Conference, originally 

set to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from 

11-14 July, will now be hosted virtually. 

The event will feature more than 30 

educational sessions with topics relevant 

to all credit union leadership levels. 

Delegates will also be able to network 

with other attendees and industry 

partners from around the world. 

woccu.org/newsroom/releases/ 

World_Council_Announces_Virtual_ 

Format_for_2021_World_Credit_Union_ 

Conference 


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April 2021

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