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Background

International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) Committee on Cooperative Research (CCR) has launched COOP Colloquium with the aim to start an academic dialogue on issues that are relevant to cooperative education and research. The experience of cooperative scholarship across the Asia and Pacific region is rich and diverse and ICA-AP CCR would like to bring these together in COOP Colloquium to share, inform and learn. Each iteration will focus on a theme, present different perspectives and have a colloquium. Digital and social media platforms will be used to promote COOP Colloquium and have a conversation around cooperative education and research. The 5th iteration of COOP Colloquium will focus on the theme ‘Promoting inclusive and quality education for cooperatives’. It will be held in collaboration with Department of Cooperatives and Social Development, PUP, Manila (the Philippines).

One of the ways cooperatives differ from other business structures is their adherence to cooperative principles and values that reflect social, political, and business concerns. Cooperatives trace the roots of these principles to the Rochdale pioneers, who established the first modern cooperative in Rochdale, England in 1844. These principles have been refined, adapted, and reinterpreted over time. The seven principles used by the International Cooperative Alliance today are generally accepted by cooperatives worldwide. Cooperatives are also based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. Cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others. Principle 5 emphasises on Education, Training and Information. Cooperatives provide education and training for members, elected representatives, managers and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperative. Members also inform the general public about the nature and benefits of cooperatives.

The College of Social Sciences and Development (CSSD) is an academic unit of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) that fosters excellence in the areas of instruction, research and extension.  This excellence in the trifocal functions of an academe is cultivated in the various programs that the College offers in its component departments, namely Cooperatives and Social Development, Economics, History, Psychology and Sociology and Anthropology. With this diverse scope, the College upholds inter and multidisciplinary approaches while sustaining disciplinal integrity in its academic programs, thereby making them at the core of proactively empowering and involving various stakeholders in addressing societal concerns and in achieving an all-inclusive development.   

The 5th ICA-AP Co-op Colloquium brings together cooperative advocates, practitioners and young scholars from the Philippines and across Asia and Pacific region to inform the general public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature and benefits of education and research on cooperation.

Registration

We invite participants to join us for the 5th iteration of COOP Colloquium and engage in an open discussion. Participants are invited to register at here. An email with login credentials will follow a day before the event.

About the Organisers

ICA-AP Committee on Cooperative Research (CCR) was established in the year 2000 to promote and support the initiation and furtherance of research activities within cooperatives and research organizations at regional, national and local levels, to enhance their social and economic effectiveness. It has members working in the field of research and academia and those in the member organisations of the ICA-AP. During its 22 years of existence, it has organized several regional research conferences and local seminars.

Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) is a government educational institution. The PUP CSSD Department of Cooperatives and Social Development offers a Bachelor of Science in Cooperatives (BSc Coop) Program, a four-year bachelor’s degree course aimed to produce cooperative technopreneur, provide the human resource and manpower requirement to the cooperative sector. As the PUP positions itself to become a National Polytechnic University, the BSc Coop Program envisions to produce globally competitive graduates who will be professionally competent, morally discerning, change agents, social innovators for national development.