For The Bohol Tribune
In This Our Journey
NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS
For this column, let me share with
you some notes I have gathered about cooperatives and the youth. The National
Confederation of Cooperatives (NATTCO) has invited me to talk at the National
Cooperative Youth Congress to be held in Bohol next week. The letter from the
CEO, Sylvia O. Paraguya, states in part: “We strongly believe in your ability
to inspire young cooperative leaders across the country through your
experience, passion and advocacy. It would also be a great opportunity to find
areas of collaboration with youth groups. Solidarity and collective development
can best be achieved through a mindset of integration and inclusion.”
My first impulse was to turn down
the invitation. I felt I might not be equal to do the task of inspiring young people
at this time because for some reasons related to the current political scene, I
myself feel uninspired. The more I listen to the so-called political debates,
the more I find wisdom in what a writer-friend often said before: “In some
other countries, political leaders worry about people and their problems, while
here we worry about politicians who are themselves the bigger problems.”
With some hesitation, I accepted
the invitation because the occasion falls on my 74th birthday, and
it would be a shame if I would have nothing inspiring to say to the young,
having spent more than fifty percent of a lifetime working among them and other
population groups described in development plans and programs as marginalized,
disadvantaged, or disenfranchised.
I decided to consult some people and
see if I could learn something inspiring about youth involvement in
cooperatives – or if they could give me some tips on how best to involve the
youth in cooperatives.
I called up Tonette Zablan, who lives in
Samboan, Cebu where she just retired as SB Secretary. She was head of our
research department at the UNICEF-assisted Ilaw International Center (IIC)
years ago and had an impeccable record as researcher and faculty member at the University
of San Carlos, where she graduated, Ateneo de Manila and other academic
institutions. Sometimes she does
research for us as volunteer with the successor NGO, the Bohol Local
Development Foundation (BLDF).
She responded to me via Facebook
on my request for her to do a case study on one or two cooperatives in her
town: “Can't do a case study of any sort. No material that is available nearby… A
PO [People’s Organization] in Samboan is running the barangay food terminal
enterprise. Not a cooperative but acting like one. The members, being farmers
are far from young, ranging from 30 to 86. Seems like they are doing well but
one problem is the lack of comparably capable members to run the enterprise
after the term of present officials expires.”
Before I could reply, she added
this message: “Start them young seems to be the order of the day. Look at the
school curricula. The Makabayan subject talks about working for the common good
but there is no specific module on cooperative development. Values and virtues
that will lead to and sustain cooperativism must be instilled in the young,
whether in formal and informal venues of learning.”
Before I could thank her, she sent
this important advice: “Possible ways youth in school can venture into as a
coop will be the sale of school supplies or running a school canteen.”
She is typical of friends from the
development network: she identified a problem and presented options on how to
address them. Now thanks to her I have some concrete ideas on how to get the
young involved in Coop work. And thanks to Facebook I was able to consult her
without paying for transportation and other meeting expenses.
Now I turn for help as usual to our
BLDF Vice President, Dr. Pomie Buot, our development colleague of more than 30
years. She leads, along with another BLDF Trustee, Jean Darunday, the
Tagbilaran Federation of Women’s Coops founded in the early 1990s.
I asked her about the status of
the membership in the Federation. She said they used to have 15 member coops,
but now the active members are down to 5, two new member coops and three old
ones. She cited the following as reasons for getting out of the Federation: the
member coops or their members could not pay back their loans and they opted to
be inactive; and the Coops find the reporting requirement too difficult to
comply with.
Dr. Pomie was able to arrange a
meeting with Niza Cagulada, Coop Development Specialist II, who has been with
the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) for 20 years. I asked her about the
reporting constraint. She validated the earlier observation that Coops are
finding it hard to submit five (5) reports annually.
Niza said these reports are as
follows: 1) Cooperative Annual Progress Report (CAPAR); 2) Audited Financial
Statement for the year done by auditors accredited by CDA, BIR, and Board of
Accountants; 3) Social Audit Report; 4) Performance Report prepared by the
Audit Committee; 5) List of officers who have undertaken training under
Republic Act No. 9520
Each officer has to undergo 14
training programs valid for five years. Niza says this has been reduced to only
two starting this year.
She says that each Coop has to pay
a fine of Php 100 per day of delay in submitting each report! Hence, Coops
choose to opt out rather than pay the fine or meet the deadlines for reporting.
The other constraint identified with regard to reporting is the requirement
that member Coops submit their reports online.
Coops in remote locations find it
difficult to comply with this requirement due to lack of internet connectivity.
Those in areas with internet access either lack the computers or the skills to
operate them. It has been observed that most members in existing Coops are in
their 50s or 60s who generally find it difficult to use digital tools. Hence,
it can be said, if the situation is not rectified, Coops will be extinct in the
Digital Age.
It is apparent that Coops need
technical assistance or guidance from the Government through the CDA. The
problem is that there are only five Field Officers to link up to around 300
Coops in Bohol. Each Field Officer like Niza is responsible to liaise with
around 100 Coops in around or more than 10 municipalities. Aside from lacking
the time to do regular monitoring visits, she has no logistical support
(translation: transport and food allowance,or possibly accommodation) for this
vital management function.
It looks like before we tackle the
issue of youth involvement in Coops, we need to look closely at the entire Coop
community, internally as well as externally with their linkages to the broader
task environment, to arrive at workable reform measures to ensure a
facilitative mechanism to carry out vital tasks.
I asked her what could be done to
solve these specific obstacles. Without batting an eyelash, she cited the
following measures:
· - Create the Provincial Cooperative Development
Office (PCDO). Niza recalls this was recommended by the CDA Administrator for
the Visayas, Benjie Oliva, in a regional meeting. In this way, there will be regular
budgetary allocation for administration and program implementation. The
Provincial Government will then become a key stakeholder in formulating policy
and program support to facilitate more systematic involvement of the youth in
the Cooperatives movement.
· - Change categorization of Coops from Assets to Capitalization for practical purposes.
This will be a more realistic assessment of a Coop’s financial status.
· -Merge relatively smaller Coops into bigger
organization and allow individual Coops to expand beyond a single barangay to
support business growth and attract more qualified and committed leaders.
The last person I interviewed
during the two-day consultations was Jancel Barajan. Her desk was nearest the
office entrance so I mistook her as the receptionist. I found out later that
this CEV (Community Economic Ventures) Credit Coop is run by 7-member staff aged 25 to 34 years old.
Jancel, who looks she is in her late twenties , is the manager. Her
team has organized and provides guidance to the following:
-Youth Saver Club; organized 19 June 2014 for those 12 years old and
below. As of 30 March 2016, it has 178 members.
-Power Teen Savers Club; organized 19 June 2014 for those 13 to 17 years old. As of 03 Feb
2016, it has 44 members.
-Tigum Alang as Kaugmaon (TASK) – for those 18 years old and above;
organized 18 December 2014 for those 18 years old and above. As of 04 March
2016, it has 100 members.
All three organizations go through the same process of having initial
capital share; savings; policies on deposit, withdrawal, interest rate. At an
early age, children and the youth learn to appreciate the discipline of financial
planning. For those aged 12 to 17, CEV forms them into clusters of five members
each, gives each cluster a Php 500 grant and guides them through a process
identifying a money-making activity, implementing it and possibly, scaling them
up. Hence, CEV helps them in the journey from being savers to becoming
entrepreneurs.
The CEV Coop gives advice on how to invest savings. It also encourages
the groups to engage in community activities, such as coastal clean-up. The
young manager says all three groups have had only three drop-outs, two because
their families had to move residence to outside Bohol, and one due to emergency
need for cash in the family.
She further says that the CEV Coop has learned a lot from the Model
Cooperation Network of Tagum Coop in Davao and the Aflatoun Child Social and Financial
Program, a partnership between NATTCO and the Department of Education which now
covers 759 public schools and now
reaching out to 259,000 school children all over the country.
The term Aflatoun baffled me. Frankly I thought it was a typographical
error. I went to the NATTCO website and was dumbfounded to read this:
“For starters, the word "aflatoun" is of Arabic origin and
refers to "the explorer," a person who thinks, explores,
investigates, and acts. It also refers to Plato, known for his ideas and
ethics, citizenship, social justice, respect, conservation, friendship, and
love for fellowmen (!).
“NATCCO is implementing the Aflatoun concept in the Philippines in
partnership with Aflatoun Child Social and Financial Education Organization,
formerly Child Savings International based in Amsterdam. The Program is
being implemented in selected schools in the Philippines in partnership with
local cooperatives, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), and the
Department of Education (DepEd).
“We have always been committed to increase young people's
participation in cooperatives, whether as member-patrons, savers, and
especially, as active participants in cooperative governance. Through
Aflatoun, we aim to produce young and responsible citizens.
“Poverty is one of the reasons why the majority of the children
worldwide are deprived of many of their rights. In the Philippines
approximately 31% of the population, or 27 million) are aged 7 to 17 years.
- 4 million are engaged in
economic activity, and three fourths of these working children are in
rural areas
- Of the 4 million working
children, 1.5 million had stopped/dropped out of school because of
insufficient family/household income
- 2.6 million are laborers
and unskilled workers
- Of the 4 million, more
than half work for one to four hours per day, and 37.7% work for five to
eight hours per day. Six out of ten children make less than $US10
per week.
All we need to do is to analyze systematically and objectively each of
the constraints and proceed to knock them down. You will say it’s easier said
than done. We agree, but unless someone acts, we will forever look for
inspiration before all the rest of those concerned can act. #Cooperativesandyouth
NMP/08 April 2016/
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