#Think.COOP

[coopsday]

Local communities learn about the cooperative model in Lao People's Democratic Republic.

The ILO organized training workshops for district officers, vocational teachers and students and cooperative members in Attapeu province, Lao PDR utilizing its Think.COOP and Start.COOP packages.

Three workshops using ILO’s training tools, Think.COOP and Start.COOP, were held in Attapeu Province on 29 February and 1 March 2024, by the ILO in collaboration with COOP Okinawa, Japan International Labour Foundation (JILAF) and Lao Federation of Trade Unions (LFTU).

Around 75 participants from the Attapeu Department of Industry and Commerce, vocational training educators and students, and members of Lao’s rice whiskey producing cooperative Lao-Lao took part in the workshop. Representatives from JICA Laos and Okinawa also joined as observers. The training sessions used select modules of Think.COOP and Start.COOP tools to help participants learn about the benefits of collective action, principles of cooperatives and rights and responsibilities of cooperative members.

Ms. Heejin Ahn, Technical Officer in ILO Bangkok stated in her presentation that ILO is the only specialized agency of the United Nations with an explicit mandate on cooperatives. Ms. Ahn gave an overview of ILO’s support for cooperative policy development, where over 100 countries have used the Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193) to develop and revise cooperative policies and laws. Ms. Ahn also provided an overview of the Our.COOP tools, including Think.Coop, and Start.Coop, developed for people interested in setting up, launching, or joining a cooperative.

Mr. Ishihara from COOP Okinawa quoted the origins of the cooperative idea in Lao PDR as “If you share it, there will be more; if you compete for it, it will never be enough”. An official of the Attapeu Department of Industry and Commerce noted that “This training helped me put into words what I have been practicing all along. Now I can share this knowledge with others.”

Participants visited the cooperative’s production facility of the Lao-Lao (Lao’s rice whiskey) in Xai Village, Attapeu Province. The ILO will continue raising awareness and strengthen cooperative development by conducting trainings using Our.COOP tool with COOP Okinawa, JILAF and LFTU.

The training was conducted jointly by two projects; ILO’s Building Youth Capacity and Network in Asia-Pacific project, which aims to empower 50,000 youth and vulnerable people using sustainable, scalable and impactful training tools in countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Lao PDR; and COOP Okinawa’s Project which aims to support the establishment of cooperatives in Attapeu Province. Both projects are funded by the Government of Japan.