THE Mindanao Alliance of Self-Help Societies – Southern Philippines Educational Cooperative Center (Mass-Specc) is set to celebrate its “50 Years of Growing Coops into a movement” on August 9.
One of the highlights of their Golden anniversary is the on the spot painting contest represented by various artist from different parts of Mindanao and is slated on July 11, 2016 and followed by the judging the next day at Mass-Specc Bldg., Tiano, Pacana streets, of this city.
The contest objective is to showcase the significant role that artist and the arts can play to promote and strengthen corss cultural understanding of cooperation. It aims in recognizing, supporting, and nurturing creations in visual arts that is in line with the theme of the celebration “Growing Cooperatives in a Movement”.
“Coops are people,” pioneer leaders of the Southern Philippines Educational Cooperative Center (Specc) used to say. They believed strongly that members were the key measure of success of the cooperative enterprise. This means members had to be active participants in the growth and development of the cooperative but also that the success of the cooperative enterprise should translate into their well-being and the improvement of lives. The primacy of members in the cooperative enterprise, therefore, was the first element at the core of the belief system of our early cooperators.
The Southern Philippines Educational Cooperative Center (Specc) was founded on August 9, 1966 on the strength of this belief, education being the key to ensuring that members, officers and staff of cooperatives imbibed the real essence of cooperation. The second belief was the need for cooperatives to work together. This is embodied in the 6th Cooperative Principle of “Cooperation among Cooperatives.” As shown by successful coop movements around the world, this principle is one reason why they have become and have remained strong players in the national economy.
The Mindanao Alliance of Self-Help Societies (Mass) became the organizational expression of this belief when it was founded by leaders of Specc on January 12, 1973. They saw in Mass the means by which cooperatives can work together in addressing individual needs as well as in strengthening the coop movement as a whole.
In 1984, Mass and Specc became one organization with a grand vision of “viable and people-oriented cooperatives” in Mindanao. Mass Specc’s mission to this day is “to foster and strengthen the financial cooperation among cooperatives towards the long-term institutional and financial stability of the cooperative sector.”
After fifty (50) years, cooperatives have become established institutions in many parts of Mindanao. Some of them have established presence (and even influence) in their localities.
They have invested in their local communities by way of financial services to members as well as social and community outreach programs that benefit even non-members. Indicative data suggest that the exposure of deposit-taking and credit-granting cooperatives in the local financial market is increasing, although there is still a need to determine their real impact on the local economy.
Mass Specc has endeavored to realize its vision of “viable and people-oriented cooperatives” working together and recognized “as a distinct sector in the economy and as a people’s movement bound by shared values and philosophy.” Some progress has been made in pursuing this vision through continuous advocacy and capacity building programs.
Majority of Mass Specc’s affiliate cooperatives are considered small and medium sized cooperatives. Although these figures mirror the national data and the state of under-development that has characterized cooperative development in the country, they indicate the continuing challenge that the federation is still facing. One such challenge is in ensuring that the growth of member cooperatives is inclusive, so that small cooperatives grow together with the bigger cooperatives.
“Growing cooperatives into a movement” will remain in Mass-Specc’s development agenada for the next fifty years.
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