The major thrust of this chapter x-rayed the emergence of todays’ co-operative.

Principles. The international co-operative alliance (ICA) came into being in 1895 in London, England. The ICA roap is the regional office for Acia and the pacific of international co-operative Alliance (ICA) the world body of all co-operative with its head office in Geneva founded in London on 13 August 1895.  I C A is a member ” based organization with national and international co-operative organizations in over 102 countries.  It serves more than 241 member organizations, including  five international organizations, representing well over 780 million individual members around the world.

Besides the head office in Geneva, Switzerland, there are five regional offices vis:

a) Regional office for Asia and the  pacific.

b) Regional office for East Central and Southern Africa.

c) Regional office for West Africa.

d) Regional office for central America and the Canibbean.

e) And Regional office for Europe.

The I C A enjoys category ” 1 consultative status with the united Nations Economic and social council (UNECOSOC) and has active working relations with UN and other international organizations.

The I C A  Regional for Asia and the pacific (ICA ROAP) is also located in New Delhire India, serves 54 national level organizations from 22  countries and one international organization Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU), representing over 48 million individual  members of co-operatives in Asia pacific region.   It is the apex body charged with co-operative development.  Over time, I C A came to realize the inadequacies of the Rochadale co-operative principles.

Many factors gave rise to I C A revisiting the Rochdale principles.  Over the years, all co-operatives the world ever adopted these principles just to be recognized as co-operatives.  With the passage of time practitioners recognized that these Rochdale principles were grossly inadequate to all types of co-operatives.

Many reasons accounted for this.  They include:

i) The Rochdale principles were essentially for consumer retailing and therefore could not apply to other types of co-operatives like credit, marketing, farming, etc.

ii) The Rochdale principles were not only philosophies but contained some trade practices which were not typically principles.  For instance, cash trading at market price and sale of pure and unadulterated  goods were trade practices, which can apply to other business organization.

iii) Some of the principles of Rochdales, like we pointed out before, were mixture of owenites, chartist and Christian socialist, which in the real sense were not co-operative in character, and finally

iv) Some environmental factors found their way into the principles.  For instance, the principle of cash sale at market price found its way into the principle because of the failure of the pre-Rochdale co-operatives.  Today, however in the world of business, credit salts is the in thing.  In advanced societies,  the use of credit card out weigh the use of physical cash.

Hence,  the introduction of the modern trends in the co-operative principles otherwise known as the International Co-operative Alliance principles.  In 1966, the International co-operative Alliance produced its own principles of co-operation and continued updating them from time to time.  The statement on co-operative identity was adopted at the 1995 General Assembly of the International Co-operative Alliance held in Manchester on the occasion of the Alliance’s centenary.

International Co-operative Alliance (I C A)

Meaning:  This is the highest Co-operative body world-wild.  It is not only an international organization but a non-governmental organization whose foundation it  is to unit, represent and serve co-operatives world-wide.

According to Dr. Onuoha (1986) the history of the listing of co-operative principles fall into two major periods.  The first period is from 1840’s to as late as the 1960’s.  during this period co-operators all over the world only ascertained what they recognized as Rochdale principles and accepted them as co-operative “commandments”.  Since the Rochdale principles contributed to the success of the pioneers, they must be observed.  Major thrust of this chapter is to X-tray the emergence of todays’ co-operative principles.  The International Co-operative Alliance (I C A) came into being in 1895 in London, England.  It is the apex body charged with co-operative development.  Over time, I C A came to realize the inadequacies of the Rochdale co-operative principles.

These principles were received world over as the co-operative Alliance until in 1966 when the International Co-operative Alliance at a congress held in Vienna, Austria, first questioned the validity of the principles.  In 1966, the International Co-operative Alliance produced its own principles of co-operative and continued updating them from time to time.