You might have missed the memo - (we know we did!) - but 2012 was the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives. And while we may take co-ops for granted, the UN believes that they contribute meaningfully to poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.
The Department of Co-operatives held an end of year open day today and the Registrar emphasized all those things, plus sound management:
Gareth Murillo, registrar of cooperatives
"2012 was designated by the United Nations as the international year of cooperatives. The purpose was to highlight the role that cooperatives can play as it pertains to poverty alleviation and to employment generation."
"We are looking at this event today as a renaissance of cooperatives in Belize. If you look at the situation right now, for an individual it is particularly difficult to access capital to start a business and so we are promoting the cooperative model where as a group then you may be able to more readily and more easily access that capital that you need."
Geovanni Brackett, reporter
"What happens when the cooperatives executives are living lavish but the members itself are rather not feeling the eating the fruits of it?"
Gareth Murillo, registrar of cooperatives
"That is indeed a concern for us. We want to look at the cooperative laws so that we can ensure that there is not that level of mismanagement. We want to ensure that that cannot occur again. We want to look at building the capacity of the people who are in the cooperatives so that they are better able to handle their affairs and not to get driven down by high debt."
Belize's first fishing co-ops were founded in the 1960's - with the first move being made by fishermen of Caye Caulker.
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