COOPERATIVE STATISTICS
AIntroduction CO-OERATIVE is defined as an autonomous association composed of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically- controlled enterprise.
A cooperative is an organisation that combines economic and social objectives more than any other type of enterprise, especially when managing activities to benefit economically marginalised people (Moore, 2000).
Cooperatives often produce goods and services of general interest that public organisations and for-profit organisations are not willing or able to generate for various reasons, including low profitability (Borzaga, 2012).
This article, therefore, focuses on use of statistics in understanding the operations of cooperatives and their use in national policy development.
2.0 Legal Framework and Institutional Arrangement
Cooperative societies are regulated by The Co-operative Societies Act No. 20 of 1998. Part II Clause 3 (2) states that the Minister shall cause to be collected, classified and analysed information and statistics on co-operatives and co-operative societies.
The Department of Cooperatives (DoC) which is now under the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry was transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture. The DoC has the mandate of promoting and facilitating the formation and growth of cooperatives to steer socio-economic development, job creation, income generation and poverty reduction.
It is further charged with the responsibility to promote and facilitate the formation and growth of cooperatives for them to become im-portant conduits for socio-economic development, job creation, in- come generation and poverty reduction.
Clearly, for this mandate to be achieved, cooperative statistics are required. Statistics are required to measure growth, income genera-tion level, and poverty reduction.
3.0 Cooperative Statistics Background
At the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) which was held in Geneva in October 2013, government, workers’ and employers’ representatives reaffirmed the importance of obtaining more comprehensive and internationally comparable statistics on cooperatives.
Pursuant to this the ICLS adopted a Resolution concerning further work on statistics of cooperatives. The Resolution recommended that the International Labour Office, in cooperation with the ILO’s constituents and interested National Statistical Offices/Agencies, carry out further developmental work on the measurement of cooperatives, in particular on the number and characteristics of cooperatives, members of cooperatives, workers employed in cooperatives and value added by cooperatives. Statistics need to be adequately disaggregated such as cooperatives by type and kind of economic activity.
4.0 Importance Cooperative Statistics
4.1 Cooperatives statistics are an essential part of any successful cooperative policy analysis. Without them, it is unlikely that anyone trying to criticise a cooperative policy or promote a new one will have an impact.
In a democratic society, policy narratives are competing for our attention and only some of them will be successful. It is easier to argue one’s case if there are no competitors arguing theirs. Without statistics to back up the case, those who are making it may fail to convince the sceptics.
4.2 Ideally, from official statistics point of view, statistics need to be collected by a National Statistics Agency such as the Central Statistical Office (CSO) because they will be updated regularly and systematically, through surveys and censuses, in order to track changes over time.
4.3 The Department of Cooperatives can publish statistics based on returns from member cooperatives, but the quality of the returns, and the proportion of cooperatives that are in membership will limit their quality.
If a government agency does not provide statistics on cooperatives, an apex cooperative can provide what we might term statistics from cooperatives. If the apex does not have the resources or the will to do it, there may be no statistics at all.
5.0 Types of Cooperatives
Cooperatives can be set up for a number of purposes. Among the best known cooperatives are agricultural cooperatives, financial cooperatives, food cooperatives and consumer cooperatives highlighted as follows:
5.1 Agricultural of farmers’ cooperatives
These help their members, who are farmers individually responsible for their own production, to carry out their business. They do so by helping them buy consumer goods and farming input, to process the production that requires heavy machinery (e.g., for dairy products), to manage farming credit and/or to distribute and market the produce.
These cooperatives reduce the number of middlemen required allowing individual farmers better negotiating powers. These are quite common in Zambia as some of them are formed for the purpose of receiving farming inputs under the Farmer Support Programme (FISP). They mainly become active when the agricultural season has started like now. 5.2 Financial cooperatives These provide credit to their members at reasonable rates and other financial services to its members, such as savings accounts.
5.3 Food cooperatives These are grocery stores for members of the cooperative, and sometimes also for others, at advantageous prices.
5.4 Consumer cooperatives
These supply their members with goods and services for their personal use at the lowest cost. They may also provide services to non‐members, but this is always a secondary objective of consumer cooperatives.
6.0 Statistics from Cooperative Registers
There are two types of registers from which statistics may be produced. The first relates to registers that are kept by the government agency or agencies in charge of cooperatives, as generally cooperatives need to be registered in these agencies in order to enjoy the benefits that are granted to them.
The second type of register relates to those that are kept by cooperative federation, of which individual cooperatives may be a part. Depending on the extent of registration and the quality of these registers, it is possible to obtain statistics directly from these registers, or to use these registers to select a sample in order to carry out an in‐depth cooperatives survey.
7.0 Cooperative Surveys
Cooperative surveys are establishment‐based surveys that target only cooperatives, identified in the register of cooperatives kept by the authority or authorities in charge of cooperatives in the country, or by the federation of cooperatives.
These surveys can produce statistics on a wide range of subjects, and as a minimum on: the value of production, expenditures, assets, inventories, by type of activity carried out by the cooperative i.e. kind of economic activity; the number of jobs in the cooperative etc.
However, when registers of cooperatives are incomplete, statistics based on this type of survey will also be incomplete (Garbage In Garbage Out). In addition, because persons can be members of more than one cooperative, the number of members of cooperatives will be overestimated.
Because the information on the average number of cooperatives to which persons are associated is not known through this source, it cannot correct for this factor and cannot provide estimates on the number of persons who are members of cooperatives.
These are quite common in Zambia as some of them are formed for the purpose of receiving farming inputs under the Farmer Support Programme (FISP). They mainly become active when the agricultural season has started like now.
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8.0 Conclusion
In this article, it has been found that the law on cooperatives in Zambia acknowledges the importance of statistics on cooperatives as it demands collection, classification and analysis of information and statistics on co-operatives and co-operative societies. Statistics on cooperatives are essential for quantifying the impact they have on their members and on the economy as a whole.
Statistics on cooperatives can also provide evidence of production levels of cooperatives throughout economic cycles.
Let me finally conclude by quoting Stiglitz et al. (n.d) who state that “In an increasingly performance-oriented society, metrics matter.
What we measure affects what we do. If we have the wrong metrics, we will strive for the wrong things.”