(GIST OF KURUKSHETRA) Building a Resilient Cooperative Sector

(JUNE-2025)

Building a Resilient Cooperative Sector

Introduction:

Cooperatives are business units expecting to face competition even from corporates while taking care of the member interests, who are generally small equity holders and challenged by livelihood stress. Thus, cooperatives are designed to have links between capitalism and socialism.

Background:

A cooperative has the intrinsic mandate to find ways to protect its members from market risks and, simultaneously, looks for the avenues to add value to the investment of the members. Second, the cooperative also needs to behave like a business unit to face the market.
Globally, it is recognized that cooperatives are aggregators of small assets, traditional skill sets, inherited production and processes, and services that each member brings in, to begin with. As the cooperative as a cohesive unit forges ahead in its life cycle, it faces the challenges of meeting the elementary expectations of these members who invested in the cooperative for a remunerative return.

Global Perspectives on Cooperatives and Skill Development

Globally, as per International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), more than 12% of the world’s population are part of any of the 3 million cooperatives. The largest 300 cooperatives and mutuals report a total turnover of 2,409.41 billion USD, according to the World Cooperative Monitor (2023).
Cooperatives provide jobs or work opportunities to 280 million people across the globe; in other words, 10% of the world’s employed population. As per the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 50 percent of the global agricultural output is marketed through cooperatives.
Working at the grassroots of the district-level infrastructure to improve quality and market relevance of Skill Development programmes across India cooperative movement through education and training and "Cooperative is a fundamental matter to teach at schools and universities." ILO views that cooperatives have necessary potential to create jobs, address poverty issues, foster social inclusion, and to promote decent work.
ILO pursues the cornerstones of skill development for cooperatives for decent work environment, good governance and management in cooperatives, and driving economic (business development, marketing, innovation, etc.) and social sustainability (social and solidarity, circular).
The ILO also recognizes that cooperatives if nurtured adequately with skill sets have a key role in promoting green jobs and practices (renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, waste management, and eco-tourism).
To address these challenges, the ILO advocates for vocational training, upskilling and reskilling within the cooperative sector. The ILO also provides range of training tools and programmes for cooperatives, like OUR.COOP package (THINK.COOP, START.COOP, MANAGE.COOP, MY.COOP, etc.).

Emerging Global Challenges for Cooperative Skilling

The world scenario on cooperatjve movement notwithstanding, the challenges are many for the cooperative movement globally. The world cooperative skill scenario needstogear up to face the challenges (which are indicative) of

mismatch between the skills that individual members possess and the skills that market needs,
technological disruption to augment productive enhancement through automation and Artificial Intelligence (Al) to remain competitive,
to reskill to embrace digital literacy,
to remain relevant in the market having accepted industry 4.0 standards,
enforce good governance practices through acquisition of soft skills,
to embrace technology-abled factors of production techniques, tools and processes,
enforce continuous and life-long learning processes.

Way ahead:

India’s renewed focus on the cooperative sector, including the historic establishment of a national university dedicated to cooperative education, presents a timely opportunity to embed skill development at the heart of cooperative transformation. However, the journey ahead requires a systemic approach: aligning policies across levels of government, fostering partnerships between institutions, and nurturing a culture of lifelong learning that reaches the grassroots.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, skill is not merely a technical asset but a strategic enabler of cooperative resilience. Investing in the right mix of managerial, technical, entrepreneurial, and governance skills will not only strengthen existing cooperatives but also unlock new pathways for inclusive and sustainable development. The future of the cooperative movement— in India and globally— will depend on how effectively it embraces this imperative.