Friday, April 08, 2016

COOPERATIVES AND THE YOUTH

For The Bohol Tribune
In This Our Journey
NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

For this column, let me share with you some notes I have gathered about cooperatives and the youth. The National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATTCO) has invited me to talk at the National Cooperative Youth Congress to be held in Bohol next week. The letter from the CEO, Sylvia O. Paraguya, states in part: “We strongly believe in your ability to inspire young cooperative leaders across the country through your experience, passion and advocacy. It would also be a great opportunity to find areas of collaboration with youth groups. Solidarity and collective development can best be achieved through a mindset of integration and inclusion.”

My first impulse was to turn down the invitation. I felt I might not be equal to do the task of inspiring young people at this time because for some reasons related to the current political scene, I myself feel uninspired. The more I listen to the so-called political debates, the more I find wisdom in what a writer-friend often said before: “In some other countries, political leaders worry about people and their problems, while here we worry about politicians who are themselves the bigger problems.”

With some hesitation, I accepted the invitation because the occasion falls on my 74th birthday, and it would be a shame if I would have nothing inspiring to say to the young, having spent more than fifty percent of a lifetime working among them and other population groups described in development plans and programs as marginalized, disadvantaged, or disenfranchised.
I decided to consult some people and see if I could learn something inspiring about youth involvement in cooperatives – or if they could give me some tips on how best to involve the youth in cooperatives.

 I called up Tonette Zablan, who lives in Samboan, Cebu where she just retired as SB Secretary. She was head of our research department at the UNICEF-assisted Ilaw International Center (IIC) years ago and had an impeccable record as researcher and faculty member at the University of San Carlos, where she graduated, Ateneo de Manila and other academic institutions.  Sometimes she does research for us as volunteer with the successor NGO, the Bohol Local Development Foundation (BLDF).

She responded to me via Facebook on my request for her to do a case study on one or two cooperatives in her town: “Can't do a case study of any sort. No material that is available nearby… A PO [People’s Organization] in Samboan is running the barangay food terminal enterprise. Not a cooperative but acting like one. The members, being farmers are far from young, ranging from 30 to 86. Seems like they are doing well but one problem is the lack of comparably capable members to run the enterprise after the term of present officials expires.

Before I could reply, she added this message: “Start them young seems to be the order of the day. Look at the school curricula. The Makabayan subject talks about working for the common good but there is no specific module on cooperative development. Values and virtues that will lead to and sustain cooperativism must be instilled in the young, whether in formal and informal venues of learning.”

Before I could thank her, she sent this important advice: “Possible ways youth in school can venture into as a coop will be the sale of school supplies or running a school canteen.”
She is typical of friends from the development network: she identified a problem and presented options on how to address them. Now thanks to her I have some concrete ideas on how to get the young involved in Coop work. And thanks to Facebook I was able to consult her without paying for transportation and other meeting expenses.

Now I turn for help as usual to our BLDF Vice President, Dr. Pomie Buot, our development colleague of more than 30 years. She leads, along with another BLDF Trustee, Jean Darunday, the Tagbilaran Federation of Women’s Coops founded in the early 1990s.

I asked her about the status of the membership in the Federation. She said they used to have 15 member coops, but now the active members are down to 5, two new member coops and three old ones. She cited the following as reasons for getting out of the Federation: the member coops or their members could not pay back their loans and they opted to be inactive; and the Coops find the reporting requirement too difficult to comply with.

Dr. Pomie was able to arrange a meeting with Niza Cagulada, Coop Development Specialist II, who has been with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) for 20 years. I asked her about the reporting constraint. She validated the earlier observation that Coops are finding it hard to submit five (5) reports annually.

Niza said these reports are as follows: 1) Cooperative Annual Progress Report (CAPAR); 2) Audited Financial Statement for the year done by auditors accredited by CDA, BIR, and Board of Accountants; 3) Social Audit Report; 4) Performance Report prepared by the Audit Committee; 5) List of officers who have undertaken training under Republic Act No. 9520
Each officer has to undergo 14 training programs valid for five years. Niza says this has been reduced to only two starting this year.

She says that each Coop has to pay a fine of Php 100 per day of delay in submitting each report! Hence, Coops choose to opt out rather than pay the fine or meet the deadlines for reporting. The other constraint identified with regard to reporting is the requirement that member Coops submit their reports online.

Coops in remote locations find it difficult to comply with this requirement due to lack of internet connectivity. Those in areas with internet access either lack the computers or the skills to operate them. It has been observed that most members in existing Coops are in their 50s or 60s who generally find it difficult to use digital tools. Hence, it can be said, if the situation is not rectified, Coops will be extinct in the Digital Age.

It is apparent that Coops need technical assistance or guidance from the Government through the CDA. The problem is that there are only five Field Officers to link up to around 300 Coops in Bohol. Each Field Officer like Niza is responsible to liaise with around 100 Coops in around or more than 10 municipalities. Aside from lacking the time to do regular monitoring visits, she has no logistical support (translation: transport and food allowance,or possibly accommodation) for this vital management function.

It looks like before we tackle the issue of youth involvement in Coops, we need to look closely at the entire Coop community, internally as well as externally with their linkages to the broader task environment, to arrive at workable reform measures to ensure a facilitative mechanism to carry out vital tasks.

I asked her what could be done to solve these specific obstacles. Without batting an eyelash, she cited the following measures:

·       -  Create the Provincial Cooperative Development Office (PCDO). Niza recalls this was recommended by the CDA Administrator for the Visayas, Benjie Oliva, in a regional meeting. In this way, there will be regular budgetary allocation for administration and program implementation. The Provincial Government will then become a key stakeholder in formulating policy and program support to facilitate more systematic involvement of the youth in the Cooperatives movement.

·         -Change categorization of Coops from  Assets to Capitalization for practical purposes. This will be a more realistic assessment of a Coop’s financial status.

·       -  Merge relatively smaller Coops into bigger organization and allow individual Coops to expand beyond a single barangay to support business growth and attract more qualified and committed leaders.

The last person I interviewed during the two-day consultations was Jancel Barajan. Her desk was nearest the office entrance so I mistook her as the receptionist. I found out later that this CEV (Community Economic Ventures) Credit Coop is run  by 7-member staff aged 25 to 34 years old.
Jancel, who looks she is  in her late twenties , is the manager. Her team has organized and provides guidance to the following:

-Youth Saver Club; organized 19 June 2014 for those 12 years old and below. As of 30 March 2016, it has 178 members.
-Power Teen Savers Club; organized 19 June 2014  for those 13 to 17 years old. As of 03 Feb 2016,  it has 44 members.
 -Tigum Alang as Kaugmaon (TASK) – for those 18 years old and above; organized 18 December 2014 for those 18 years old and above. As of 04 March 2016, it has 100 members.

All three organizations go through the same process of having initial capital share; savings; policies on deposit, withdrawal, interest rate. At an early age, children and the youth learn to appreciate the discipline of financial planning. For those aged 12 to 17, CEV forms them into clusters of five members each, gives each cluster a Php 500 grant and guides them through a process identifying a money-making activity, implementing it and possibly, scaling them up. Hence, CEV helps them in the journey from being savers to becoming entrepreneurs.

The CEV Coop gives advice on how to invest savings. It also encourages the groups to engage in community activities, such as coastal clean-up. The young manager says all three groups have had only three drop-outs, two because their families had to move residence to outside Bohol, and one due to emergency need for cash in the family.

She further says that the CEV Coop has learned a lot from the Model Cooperation Network of Tagum Coop in Davao and the Aflatoun Child Social and Financial Program, a partnership between NATTCO and the Department of Education which now covers 759 public schools and  now reaching out to 259,000 school children all over the country.

The term Aflatoun baffled me. Frankly I thought it was a typographical error. I went to the NATTCO website and was dumbfounded to read this:

“For starters, the word "aflatoun" is of Arabic origin and refers to "the explorer," a person who thinks, explores, investigates, and acts.  It also refers to Plato, known for his ideas and ethics, citizenship, social justice, respect, conservation, friendship, and love for fellowmen (!).

“NATCCO is implementing the Aflatoun concept in the Philippines in partnership with Aflatoun Child Social and Financial Education Organization, formerly Child Savings International based in Amsterdam.  The Program is being implemented in selected schools in the Philippines in partnership with local cooperatives, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), and the Department of Education (DepEd).

“We have always been committed to increase young people's participation in cooperatives, whether as member-patrons, savers, and especially, as active participants in cooperative governance.  Through Aflatoun, we aim to produce young and responsible citizens.

“Poverty is one of the reasons why the majority of the children worldwide are deprived of many of their rights.  In the Philippines approximately 31% of the population, or 27 million) are aged 7 to 17 years.

  • 4 million are engaged in economic activity, and three fourths of these working children are in rural areas
  • Of the 4 million working children, 1.5 million had stopped/dropped out of school because of insufficient family/household income
  • 2.6 million are laborers and unskilled workers
  • Of the 4 million, more than half work for one to four hours per day, and 37.7% work for five to eight hours per day.  Six out of ten children make less than $US10 per week.

So there, my esteemed readers, I have found the reason to be inspired. Despite all the constraints encountered at the provincial and sub-provincial level on the key issue of involving the youth in the cooperative movement, the fact is that some initiatives have been undertaken by both the Government and the Coops themselves.

All we need to do is to analyze systematically and objectively each of the constraints and proceed to knock them down. You will say it’s easier said than done. We agree, but unless someone acts, we will forever look for inspiration before all the rest of those concerned can act. #Cooperativesandyouth

NMP/08 April 2016/


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