International cooperative alliance

Founded in 1895, the International Co-operative Alliance is an independent, non-governmental organization which unites, represents and serves co-operatives worldwide. It is the largest non-governmental organisations in the world.

ICA members are national and international co-operative organisations in all sectors of activity including agriculture, banking, fisheries, health, housing, industry, insurance, tourism and consumer co-operatives. Currently, ICA has 258 member organizations from 96 countries, representing approximately 1 billion individuals worldwide.

ICA's priorities and activities centre on promoting and defending the Cooperative Identity, ensuring that co-operative enterprise is a recognised form of enterprise that is able to compete in the marketplace.

• ICA raises awareness about co-operatives. It helps individuals, government authorities and regional and international institutions understand the co-operative model of enterprise. ICA is the voice of the cooperative movement.

• ICA ensures that the right policy environment exists to enable co-operatives to grow and prosper. It helps its members in their lobbying for new legislation and more appropriate administrative procedures that respect the co-operative model, its principles and values. It provides political support as well as technical expertise to enable co-operatives to compete on a level playing field.

• ICA provides its members with key information, best practice and contacts. Through its publications it ensures the sharing of information. It organises meetings and workshops to address key issues affecting co-operatives and allows discussion among co-operators from around the world. ICA facilitates contacts between co-operatives for trading purposes and intelligence sharing in a wide range of areas.

• ICA provides technical assistance to co-operatives through its development. ICA promotes capacity-building and financial support, it facilitates job creation and supports poverty reduction and microfinance programmes around the world.

The ICA logo depicts doves of peace emerging from a rainbow - the symbol of the Co-operative Movement - and represents the unity of ICA's diverse membership. It was initially designed for ICA' Centennial Congress in 1995.

Text 4 cooperative history The Rochdale Pioneers

Co-operatives started out as small grassroots organisations in Western Europe, North America and Japan in the middle of the last century, however, the it is the Rochdale Pioneers that is regarded as the prototype of the modern co-operative society and the founders of the Co-operative Movement.

In 1844 a group of 28 artisans working in the cotton mills in the town of Rochdale, in the north of England established the first modern co-operative business, the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society. The weavers faced miserable working conditions and low wages, and they could not afford the high prices of food and household goods. They decided that by pooling their scarce resources and working together they could access basic goods at a lower price. Initially, there were only four items for sale: flour, oatmeal, sugar and butter.

The Pioneers decided it was time shoppers were treated with honesty, openness and respect, that they should be able to share in the profits that their custom contributed to and that they should have a democratic right to have a say in the business. Every customer of the shop became a member and so had a true stake in the business. At first the co-op was open for only two nights a week, but within three months, business had grown so much that it was open five days a week.

The principles that underpinned their way of doing business are still accepted today as the foundations upon which all co-operatives operate. These principles have been revised and updated, but remain essentially the same as those practiced in 1844.