Speech at ICA Extraordinary General Assembly

ICA Extraordinary General Assembly

Cooperatives United events,

30 October 03 November 2012

Manchester, the UK

/by N.Bayartsaikhan/

Your Excellency, Dame Pauline Green, President of ICA,

Mr. Charles Gould, Director General of ICA,

Distinguished delegates of cooperative organizations worldwide,

I am very glad, as a head of the leading cooperative organization of Mongolia, to participate in the ICA Extraordinary General Assembly and Cooperatives United events here in Manchester, the world capital of cooperative movement.

The UN 64^th General Assembly approved the initiative of the Government of Mongolia and declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives. We, at National Association of Mongolian Agricultural Cooperatives, conveyed to the Government of Mongolia the importance of initiating this year.

2012 is the significant moment for the world cooperative movement and our association partnering with other organizations and the Government of Mongolia is implementing a number of activities to celebrate the Year.

            First of all, to promote the rural cooperatives our cooperative movement together with Government announced a three-year program “Campaign to promote rural cooperation”. Within the scope of the program, nationwide activities have started to identify and support existing cooperatives, which are playing a key role for the development of the rural communities, and to foster the formation of new cooperatives. As a first result, 105 rural cooperatives were identified as eligible to get investment and other support for further development. 

We have established a working group to revise the existing Law on Cooperatives and we are appealing to the Parliament of Mongolia urgently amend the law considering the unique business structure of the cooperatives.   

We are more focusing on increasing the public awareness about the cooperative model of enterprises and their role in the social and economic development of the country through training, seminars, demonstration workshops, and media advertisements, and we can see actual results that people’s understanding of cooperatives are improved and the willingness to support and join the cooperatives are increased.

Today nearly one in seven people suffer from undernourishment, which means that the world has the means to eliminate hunger. It is becoming more obvious that, due to the world population growth, the negative impact of climate change on farming and farmland degradation, the demand for food will further increase. There is a need for producing extra food to feed more than nine billion people by 2050. One of the necessary steps to achieving food security and alleviating the hunger is to support and invest in agricultural cooperatives. Agricultural cooperatives help small farmers and herders to increase food production, market their goods, create jobs and improve their livelihoods. But most of the agricultural cooperatives in the developing countries face numerous difficulties and challenges.

Therefore, it is vital to increase understanding of the role and importance of agricultural cooperatives in achieving food security, eliminating hunger and reducing poverty in the world and there is a need to empower and support the growth of agricultural cooperatives.