JCCU has been cooperating with the activities of the International Labour Organization (ILO) by supporting the human resource development for the establishment and development of co-operatives in Africa since 2010. By 2018, 38 co-operatives from 16 African countries have participated in this program. This year, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ILO, this program has also reached its 10th year.

From September 5-14, five managers from co-operative organizations in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania visited Japan and participated in the training program.
They visited various co-operatives including consumers’, agricultural, and labor bank and received lectures on the general situation of Japanese co-operatives.
In addition, they visited various business and activity sites such as co-op stores and recycling centers, university co-op stores and cafeterias, hospitals operated by medical co-ops, child-rearing support facilities by workers’ cooperatives, production sites by agricultural cooperatives and farmers’ markets.

On September 13, to wrap-up the study tour, a public seminar “Future of Work x Africa x Cooperatives” co-sponsored by the ILO and Japan Co-operative Alliance (JCA) was held at the UN University headquarters, and approximately 70 people participated. The seminar was also a partner project of the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) held from August 28-30, 2019 in Yokohama.

Mr. Guy TCHAMI, Cooperative Policy and Research Specialist of ILO gave a keynote speech under the theme “The future of work, current trends on cooperatives & the social and solidarity economy - The role of the ILO”.

He cited demographics, technology, economy and environment as the four factors that will change the future of work, and described the role of co-operatives in the change. In addition, the outline of co-operative development by ILO was explained, and the recent development cases centered on Africa and Asia were introduced.

Subsequently, the 5 co-operative leaders gave brief introduction of their respective co-operatives and lessons learnt from the study tour and how the experience got could be applied to the improvement of development projects and organizational management after returning home.

The participants were:

Ms. Joan Susan ATUHURRA (Kenya), Finance & Administration Manager, African Confederation of Co-operative Savings and Credit Associations (ACCOSCA)

Ms. Ursullah Bwari GESEMBE (Kenya), Senior Consultant / Business Development Manager, Coop Consultancy & Insurance Agency

Mr. Oladipo Olanrewaju SHOBULE (Nigeria), Administrator, Lagos Local Government Multipurpose Cooperative

Mr. August Ernest KIMARIO (Tanzania), Coordinator, Kilimanjaro Dairy Coop Joint Enterprise

Ms. Somoe Ismail NGUHWE (Tanzania), Chairperson, Tanesco SACCOS