2.3 What is meant by co-operative resilience?

Borda-Rodriguez and Vicari note in particular that the capabilities outlined in the previous section depend on the agency that people have either as individuals or collectively in groups, communities and organisations. So in this sense, an organisation needs to have the capabilities described for individuals in Section 2.2.

Without going through their discussion, which you can do for yourself if you want to go into more depth, they conclude that a resilient organisation has the ‘ability to develop a set of dynamic capabilities that enable it to’:

• adjust to shocks
• moderate the effects of and cope with the consequences of risks
• take advantage of opportunities emerging from a crisis
• develop internal and external organisational skills
• implement learning and innovation processes, which strengthen the organisational ability to deal with changing environments
• satisfy the majority of internal and external stakeholders.

Co-operatives of course have particular characteristics and requirements as organisations. They are steered by particular values and principles, they are member-owned, they are democratically controlled, and they have to survive (and hopefully prosper) in a (usually) competitive business environment.

So in order to satisfy the dynamic capabilities outlined above, what do they have to do?

Borda-Rodriguez and Vicari (2013b, p. 4) suggest the framework in Figure 1 for analysing whether and how co-operatives are resilient or not. The framework is based on reviewing the literature about some of the fundamental challenges faced by co-operatives, particularly, but not only, in a developing country context.

I will look at each component in turn.

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Figure 1 A resilience framework for co-operatives

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This diagram has ‘co-operative resilience’ at its centre and five dimensions organised in boxes that are thought to contribute to co-operative resilience organised around this central concept. The boxes are the following:

• Membership, which includes aspects such as identify, education, trust, cohesion, reciprocity and an attitude of self-help
• Collective skills, which include skilled management, open discussion amongst members, common vision and access to training
• Networks, which involves accountable leadership, an apex body (overall national federation of co-operatives), and interactions between co-operatives
• Government, which is about its role in creating a conducive environment for co-operatives, without co-opting them, and enabling connections to partners which can support the co-operative movement
• Finally, innovation, which included, in the case of rural co-operatives primarily concerned with farming as well as the savings and credit co-operatives that might support them, the participatyion in value chains, the potential offered by Fair Trade and availability and access to credit to be able to invest in innovation.

There are two way arrows between all these dimensions as there are reinforcing processes between them: that is, each aspect may be reinforced by the other aspects.

Figure 1 A resilience framework for co-operatives