Assessing Extent to which Co-operative Societies Comply with the International Co-operative Alliance Standards - A Case of Mpika District in Zambia

Reagan Ntalasha

this paper assesses the extent to which co-operative societies complied with the International Co-operatives Alliance (ICA) standards using a comparative approach between the category of enterprising and non-enterprising cooperatives in Mpika district. The national criterion of categorizing cooperative enterprises does not factor in the ICA standards. Specific objectives were to determine the extent to which co-operatives complied with the ICA principles in 2015; voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic participation, autonomy and independence, education, training and information, cooperation among cooperatives and concern for the community. 75 registered co-operatives were selected for the study. Data collection was achieved through questionnaires, interviews, and study of documentary material from ICA reports and academic works. Data summary was presented on ICA principles score sheet. Analysis was done using the chi-square test, liquidity ratio and surplus determination. Findings show that 100% of cooperatives from both categories were non-compliant with ICA principle on cooperative independence and this compromised adherence with other principles. The study concludes that there is no significant difference between the enterprise category of cooperatives and the compliance with ICA principles on all the 7 principles. The conclusion implies that cooperatives are similar in compliance and abrogation of the ICA standards regardless of their category of enterprise. The Zambian situation has been exposed as one that has co-operatives that operate in accordance to two demanding objectives; the successive governments’ objective and the ICA objective though the former has a larger influence in the operation of co-operatives. In order to have co-operatives that would comply in totality with ICA standards, the study’s main recommendation is to let ICA take a key role in regulating co-operatives worldwide.