International Organisation of Industrial, Artisanal
and  Service Producers' Co-operatives
 
The International Organisation of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producers' Co-operatives is a specialized organisation of the International Co-operative Alliance, founded in 1947. This specialised organisation is generally known by its French acronym, CICOPA, an abbreviation of Comité International des Coopératives de Production et de Services Industrielles et Artisanales. Its members are producers' co-operatives from different fields: construction, industrial production, general services, transport, intellectual skills, artisanal activities, health, social care, etc. It has 65 member-organisations from 45 countries.
 
With the recent transformation of the world economy, this type of co-operative is no longer a marginal phenomenon. Numbers have increased in both industrialized and developing countries over recent years. In 1975, CICOPA estimated that there were some 44,000 producers' co-operatives worldwide with six million individual members. This figure has increased significantly over the past 20 years to about 50 million members/workers including co-operative societies and other forms of associative enterprises such as those promoted by Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) in the United States or by Industrial Common Ownership Movement Ltd., (ICOM) in the United Kingdom, and the Sociedades Anonimas Laborales (SAL) in Spain. The new impetus to the movement was given by privatisation of certain economies (e.g. China).
 
The main target of CICOPA is to foster the creation of national organisations of producers' co-operatives all over the world; to contribute to the development of the already existing organisations; and to promote the development of co-operation in developing countries.
 
CICOPA aims to support commercial and technical links between producers'co-operatives through the exchange of goods and services; the provision of education and trainingespecially at managerial level; exchange of experience; the study the issues specific to producers' co-operatives in all countries, and the circulation of recommendations for the
solution of co-operative problems in the industrial sector.
 
ICA is an independent, non-governmental association which unites, represents and serves co-operatives worldwide. founded in 1895, it now has 232 national members in 93 countries, plus four  international members.
 

President :      Mr. Marian Rybar
Vice-President
Co-operative Union of the Producer Co-operatives
Mliekarenska 10
824 92 Bratislava
Slovakia
tel:(421-7) 5212 336
fax:(421-7) 5212 412
 

Secretary :  Jan-Eirik Imbsen
Deputy Development Director
International Co-operative Alliance
15, rte des Morillons
1218 Grand-Saconnex, Geneva
Switzerland
Tel : (41-22) 929 88 17
Fax : (41-22) 798 41 22
E-mail : development@coop.org
 
 
Web Pages:
English    http://www.coop.org/en/cicopa.html
French     http://www.coop.org/fr/cicopaF.html
Spanish   http://www.coop.org/es/cicopaS.html
German   http://www.coop.org/d/cicopaG.html