African Conversation on the International Day of Cooperatives: #Coops4Climate Action

African Conversation on the International Day of Cooperatives: #Coops4Climate Action

by Boitumelo Gwala | ACI-SA Journalist | 10 July 2020

Cooperatives can play a huge role in mitigating climate change. According to the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) greenhouse gas emissions are more than 50% higher than in previous years and global warming has caused long-lasting changes to the climate change system, with irreversible repercussions should the world fail to act.

On 4 July, Africa Cooperatives Institute of South Africa  (ACI-SA) celebrated the international day of cooperatives with the theme of the day: DEBUNKING THE ROLE OF COOPERATIVES IN THE CLIMATE CHANGE AGENDA.

Leading the zoom event was Ms Sebonkile Thaba, chairperson of Africa Cooperatives Institute of South Africa. The webinar was also attended by esteemed guests including Mr Basanda Nondlazi, a remote sensing ecologist, a researcher at UKZN/CSIR and interim head of the school of Agriculture at ACI-SA, Dr. Andrew Okem, scientific officer (social science) at the University of KwaZulu Natal and ACI-SA academic fellows.

In his opening remarks, Mr Nondlazi emphasised more on the role played by the cooperatives. “Cooperatives and cooperative day are important because they are important pillars of sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and alternative forms of employment and their cooperative philosophy make them unique,” said Nondlazi.

He also said that the cooperatives community should aim to form a cooperative network about climate change. 

“Informing the African network, the process should be driven by Pan-Africanist cooperatives because this is to ensure the information shooting is Afro-centric”. Furthermore, Nondlazi said the climate change community should start focussing on the opportunities that climate change brings for the cooperative network.

Mr Nondlazi added that there is a need to establish a community research cooperative that can work as data custodians. “When we have a community research cooperative, they can be custodians of this data and this data can also be used by other researchers, they can also play a part in forestry. Community research cooperatives can also play a big role in developing infrastructure and security around research equipment that researchers would like to instal in the long term. They can also provide security for research equipment, environment care and the issue of sustainability.” Said Nondlazi.

In giving an additional brief on Mr Nondlazi’s presentation was Dr. Andrew Okem who firstly acknowledged Mr Nondlazi’s presentation on the role of cooperatives in the context of climate change.

Dr. Okem said climate action is crucial because it is also linked to the Sustainable Development Goal which is to speak about the climate change action.

He said the principles of the cooperative movement, particularly principle number 7, which talks about a concern for the community to become important to climate action talks. “This principle talks about walking the sustainable development community where they are situated and the values of social responsibility, when these things are put together, the question of climate change action becomes an important consideration for cooperative movement,” said Okem.

“If you look at the recent report on the intergovernmental panel of climate change, they paint a concerning picture about the impact of climate change especially in Africa and how climate change is disrupting livelihoods opportunities affecting the lives of people.”

Dr. Okem mentioned that cooperatives provide many livelihood opportunities around the world and most of the individuals affected and who are vulnerable around the impact of climate action are small skill farmers. Women in youth, indigenous groups and ethnic minorities.

Furthermore, Dr. Okem said education becomes a more important tool when it comes to responding to climate change issues about cooperatives. “Informing members of the cooperatives to become aware of what climate change is, is an important consideration: said Okem.