Kuwait women’s cooperative part enriches feat record
Kuwait boasts pioneering cooperative movement - union chief
KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti cooperative movement marked Saturday 60 years since the late Amir Sheikh Abdullah AlSalem Al-Sabah issued Law on Cooperatives in 1962. The anniversary falls at a time when Kuwaiti women celebrate their strong achievements and clear impact they have left on this field. Over the last 60 years, Kuwaiti women have gained public confidence to enter the domain of cooperative work, based on remarkable social awareness.
Nouria Al-Sadani, a renowned feminist, was the first Kuwaiti woman to become a member of the board of directors of a cooperative society in AlRoudha district, south of Kuwait City, in 1969. In this context, Haia Al-Maqroun, who has been recently elected member of the board of directors of Al-Shaab Cooperative Society, said her membership win was an achievement to be added to the record of Kuwaiti women’s social empowerment since the country’s independence. Maqroun said she had taken senior women who had long experience in the area of cooperative work in general as an example to follow.
She elaborated that her practical experience in the voluntary domain involving cooperative work, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, had spurred her to run for the recent election. She added that she seeks to deepen the principle of partnership among civil society organizations in a bid to serve the interests of the whole society in general and her neighborhood’s residents in particular, citing training courses for shareholders just as a relevant paradigm. Urging other women to join the future elections of cooperative societies, Maqroun regretted that women have no representation in 68 boards of directors of cooperation societies nationwide.
Meanwhile, former assistant undersecretary of the ministry of social affairs Awatef Al-Qattan underlined that it is initially essential to stimulate social activities just as one of the goals of the cooperative movement, thus serving families and the entire society. Qattan, who was a member of the board of directors of Al-Qusor and Al-Qurain Cooperative Society between 19981999 and 1999-2000, boasted that she was the first woman to have been tasked with establishing and equipping a wedding hall in her neighborhood.
However, she believed that Kuwaiti women’s reluctance to join the electoral race of cooperative societies is due to lack of effective efforts to develop and upgrade the field of social, voluntary and steering services. The Kuwaiti cooperative movement is a pioneering experiment at both Gulf and Arab levels, with cooperatives offering consumer and social services to their customers in general and shareholders in particular.
Pioneering movement
Kuwaiti cooperative societies have managed to maintain the stable prices of basic commodities and services nationwide for many years, setting a pioneering example in both Gulf and Arab regions, said the chief of the Union of Cooperative Societies. “The Kuwaiti cooperative movement is so pioneering that it was generated out of the womb of the Kuwaiti society and reflected the cooperative spirit of
Kuwaiti forefathers,” Abdulaziz Assad said in an interview marking 60 years since the Union was founded. The cooperative movement, in its current format, began in Kuwait as per Law 20/1962 that set out rules and regulations for establishing cooperatives, membership, management, oversight and whatnots, he recalled.
The Union was created in 1971 just to be the beginning of collective work in the consumer cooperative sector, defending the interests of member cooperatives and representing them at relevant Arab and international events, the union’s chief elaborated. Assad spoke highly of the State’s backing to the cooperative movement, drawing cooperatives’ effective involvement in the national economy by means of creating a congenial legislative and regulatory work environment. Only out of its belief in the cooperative movement and its success in making commodities and services available, the State has tasked cooperatives with the distribution of subsidized commodities among citizens since 1975, he pointed out. The Union joined the International Cooperative Alliance, which is a non-governmental co-operative Union representing co-operatives and the cooperative movement worldwide,
Kuwaiti cooperative movement marks 60th anniversary
in March 1981, Assad boasted. Furthermore, the Kuwaiti Union of Cooperative Societies contributed to founding the Arab Cooperative Union in August of the same year, and has promoted its relations with different world cooperative organizations through the exchange of personnel visits, Assad remarked.
In 1981, the Union consented to the collective purchasing and importing policy for specific staples in a bid to provide alternatives to highly expensive commodities at the domestic market, thus reining in looming price hikes, he noted. The Union’s chief underlined that the cooperative movement has various economic dimensions, based on developing and strengthening national industries, promoting internal and external trade and seeking to solve economic problems. The Kuwaiti cooperative movement is a pioneering experiment at both Gulf and Arab levels, with cooperatives offering consumer and social services to their customers in general and shareholders in particular. — KUNA