COPAC OPEN FORUM Cooperatives and the Millennium Development Goals 27 May 2004 (10:00-17:00) The Churchill Hotel 1914 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington DC, (USA)

Agenda -- Aim -- Rationale -- Participants

AGENDA		Biographies Abstracts/ Texts of presentations
Opening	Jennie Dey De Pryck, COPAC Chairperson and Chief, Rural Institutions and Participation Service, Rural Development Division, Sustainable Development Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Keynote Address	Cooperatives and the Millennium Development Goals: Their role and potential Prof. Johnston Birchall, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Stirling University and Senior Associate, New Economics Foundation, UK	Biography PowerPoint Presentation (98 KB)
	The World Bank - Rural producer organizations and agricultural cooperatives: Issues and challenges for reaching the rural poor Pierre Rondot, Agricultural Economist / Community Development Specialist Agriculture and Rural Development Department, World Bank	Biography PowerPoint Presentation (182 KB)
	Can the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) process be effective without cooperatives? Bernard Kadasia, Director, Regional Office for East, Central and Southern Africa, International Co-operative Alliance (ICA ROECSA)	Biography PowerPoint Presentation (4 MB)
	Farmers and their cooperatives: Contributing to the MDGs U.G. Dayananda; General Manager, Sri Lanka Co-operative Marketing Federation Ltd. (MARKFED), Sri Lanka
	Cooperatives and the MDGs: A US View Paul Hazen, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), USA	Biography PowerPoint Presentation (710 KB)
	IRnet- Helping People Grow Pablo DeFilippi, International Remittance Network Products and Services Manager, World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU)	Biography PowerPoint Presentation (301 KB)
	Fighting HIV/AIDS: The cooperative response Savitri Singh, Advisor, Gender Programme, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, International Co-operative Alliance (ICA ROAP) Jürgen Schwettmann, Chief, Cooperative Branch, International Labour Office (ILO)	PowerPoint Presentation (1.9 MB)
	Closing David King, Vice-Chair, COPAC and Secretary General, International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)

Aim

The Forum will demonstrate that cooperative movement can be a key partner in achieving the Millennium Development Goals and in particular to reducing poverty worldwide.

Rationale

Some development specialists continue to have an antiquated view of cooperatives seeing them as small organizations in poor countries that are government controlled. They therefore, do not consider them to be as viable partners for their activities. The Forum would like to change that view by demonstrating through the presentation of case studies that cooperatives are thriving enterprises which are contributing in significant ways to reducing poverty, tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic, promoting gender equality, and ensuring environmental sustainability. COPAC is convinced that development agencies can make their existing programmes more effective by working with cooperatives at the international, national, regional and even local levels. With a movement that reaches 760 million individuals, we know that the cooperative movement can be a key partner to reach the MDG targets.

The COPAC Open Forum is an open meeting for all persons and organizations interested in learning more on the activities of cooperative organizations around the world. This Open Forum will include the participation of representatives of the United Nations agencies, bilateral and cooperative development agencies, and leaders of farmer and cooperative organisations, as well as academics.

Please contact COPAC for more information on the meeting and how to participate - copac@coop.org.

United Nations Millennium Development Goals

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Updated: 1 June 2004