Banking on the Grass Roots: Cooperatives in Global Development

Raj S. Gandhi is a professor of sociology at the University of Calgary.

The co-operative movement has been described as the largest
socioeconomic movement in the world, with close to 600 million
individual members. It is found in many countries, in every type of
economy, and in almost all economic sectors.

But its very diverse character and the implications flowing from this
are poorly understood. While some view co-op structures as small-scale
“socialistic” enterprises, others regard them as just another form
of business. Although the co-op movement is universal, co-operatives are
uniform in neither their structures nor their activities. This
diversity, which is both a strength and a weakness of the movement,
leads to confusion.

This confusion extends to an assessment of the contribution of
co-operatives in developing countries, a subject of continuing
discussion and debate. In 1975, a United Nations study concluded that
“rural cooperatives in developing areas today bring little benefit to
the masses of poorer inhabitants of those areas and cannot be generally
regarded as agents of change and development for such groups.” But in
his 1987 report to the General Assembly, the un Secretary-General
remarked on “sound evidence that cooperatives are an invaluable
institution for promoting social and economic development and achieving
a more equitable distribution of income.”

This study discusses the widely varying nature of co-operatives in the
developing world and the question of their effectiveness as agents of
change. In noting increased efforts by the co-operative movement in
Canada and other industrialized countries to assist co-operatives in the
Third World, the study offers suggestions for policy-makers that can
lead to a strengthening of the assistance role. The book provides
simultaneous translation in French and is a welcome addition to the
Canadian literature on the Third World.