Melanesia, which includes the island nations of the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, and FLNKS, is an important regional partner in the Asia Pacific region and cooperatives have a major role to play in the development of the region. ICA and ICA Asia Pacific was represented at the recent Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Co-operative Development meeting held in Honiara, Solomon Islands on 19 September 2016 by the General Manager of ICA member, the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals, the national peak body for cooperatives in Australia. ICA Asia Pacific Director Mr. Balu Iyer asked the BCCM to represent the cooperative sector at this important meeting. 

This was the first co-operative development workshop arranged by the MSG. The MSG has taken an interest in co-operatives as a vehicle to drive social and economic development in the region. This has been championed particularly by Mr. Ridley Joseph, Director and Registrar of the Office of the Registrar of Co-operatives and Business Development Services in Vanuatu, and Mr. Henry Sanday, Private Sector Development Advisory at the MSG. The workshop was attended by heads of the various co-operative registries and departments in the MSG countries, with the exception of Fiji who were unable to attend. The workshop commenced with an outline of the issues being faced by these departments in their aims to develop co-operatives in country. It was explained that co-operatives had been prevalent across Melanesia for several decades until they started to decline in the 1970s. By the time political unrest came to the region, the majority of co-operative businesses had closed, and by the late 1990s they were mostly non-existent. Issues raised by the group included a lack of political awareness of the sector, lack of access to sufficient access to capital and capital raising opportunities, lack of sufficient education about the co-operative model and issues in relation to market access and supply chain logistics.

The BCCM General Manager, Ms. Alexandra Hordern, spoke to the group, providing a background on the ICA and the work the ICA does globally, and in the local region. Emphasis was placed on the need to engage with the ICA, noting the large number of important networking and trade events held by the regional office and the head office. The meeting closed with recommendations encouraging greater engagement with the ICA, the BCCM, and a renewed sense of the co-operative purpose.