The International Cooperative Alliance is happy to welcome the Somali Union Co-operative Movement (UDHIS) from Somalia, the Cooperative Lesotho Ltd. from Lesotho and the Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples La Telefónica (COOPSEMUTEL) from the Dominican Republic as a full Members in July 2018.
UDHIS is the umbrella organisation of the Somalian cooperative movement. The members are the six national sectoral unions, each of which have their own district unions. The movement in Somalia produces mostly sesame, banana, leather, seafood, maize, and livestock.
It was previously in existence from 1973 to 1990 when it was destroyed after the collapse of the Somali government in early 1991. The Federal Government approved the re-establishment of UDHIS in February 2016.
Cooperative Lesotho Ltd is the apex organisation for the cooperative movement in Lesotho. It markets farming inputs and produces for members and the farming community. They also provide capacity building and advocacy for members its 81 member cooperatives and 65,000 individual members. Cooperatives Lesotho was a previous member from September 2010 to March 2017.
Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples La Telefónica (COOPSEMUTEL) from the Dominican Republic is a savings and credit as well as multi-service cooperative founded by the imitative of the employees of the Compañia Dominicana de Teléfonos. Members can be any permanent employee of this company or an affiliated company, of which they currently have 154 affiliated companies and 16.941 members.
They provide the following services: savings, payday loans, telephone card, cafeteria, cooperative insurance products, and funeral planning.
UPDATED MEMBER STATISTICS
The newest membership statistics are, therefore:
313 member organisations of which 268 are full members and 45 are Associate Members from 109 countries. Lesotho is a new member country.
