What is the Developing 300 list?

The Developing 300 list is a ranking of co-operatives in terms of their relative importance in developing economies.

Why compile such a list?

The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) believes that the Developing 300 list can help demonstrate the importance of co-operatives in developing economies; the fact that they are major players in their national economies, and that they play an important role in poverty reduction and contribute significantly to job creation. The list also shows unequivocally that relative size is important. The first priority must be to provide more and better analysis on the role co-operatives play in developing economies – both economically and socially. This is the second edition of the Developing 300.

What does it contribute?

The Developing 300 list provides a development perspective to the Global 300 project by contributing to knowledge about co-operatives in a selected number of developing economies where ICA members operate. It highlights successful co-operative business models and innovative approaches.

• For ICA members it provides value for membership by giving them access to best practice in a
  consistent manner.
• For development partners, the list is an invaluable resource and evidence base in terms of data and best practice.
• For training institutions it constitutes a teaching resource.
• For governments, it enables access to a global database and knowledge about an alternative business model. This may in turn lead to increased recognition of co-operatives as equal partners. The list also provides an opportunity for partnership with government around data.

The Developing 300 list also lends itself to exchange of ideas and business opportunities across regions and with co-operatives on the Global 300 list.

Case studies

This year (2008) the ICA is publishing three case studies to highlight best practice that will be relevant and an inspiration to co-operatives in general, and to co-operatives in developing economies in particular. The case studies are taken from three different regions: Africa, the Americas and Asia:

• Kenya: CIC Insurance
• Colombia. Saludcoop
• Malaysia: Bankrakyat

• Download the Developing 300 List for 2008

The aim of the research is to collect data not currently available in summary form. We believe that the data will:

• demonstrate that co-operatives are important to developing economies.
• increase visibility of the co-operative business model in the context of national economic development.
• provide more evidence to help argue the co-operative case.

The project has the potential to help drive and coordinate global, regional and national initiatives on data collection and evidence based policy and advocacy. Combined with the Global 300 we expect it to prove to be a very powerful communications tool to advance the cause of co-operatives.

The methodology will be the same as for the Global 300, i.e. ranking on turnover (highest level
of audited consolidation). Using the same methodology will ensure that we have a consistent approach to our inclusion of the various data, level of audited aggregation etc. We aim to collect data on the twenty biggest co-operatives in each country in terms of turnover. This will be based on audited accounts where possible, using national/regional associations and government departments as a primary source.

We aim to collect the following information for the Developing 300 project:

• Name of organisation
• Co-operative/mutual structure
• Country of origin
• GCIS (industry classification system)
• Year of establishment
• Turnover FY 2005 in USD
• Assets FY 2005
• Website address
• Where available we will also input data for FY 2004 & 2006.

For the purpose of our initial Developing 300 project, we have chosen 8 countries from the Americas region, 10 countries from Asia, and 12 from Africa.

Americas: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay.
Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.
Africa: Cape Verde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda.

The 2007 Global 300 list will be launched at the ICA’s General Assembly in Singapore on the 18-
19 October 2007. The launch will be part of an integrated session of case studies drawing on best practices from within the Global and Developing 300s. The progress made to date with the Developing 300 Project will also be introduced at the General Assembly. The main message at this launch is that not only are co-operative and mutual businesses a globally significant economic force but they operate to a set of values and principles which drive their business model creating a real alternative to for-profit businesses.

In addition, Developing 300 project will showcase how co-operatives in the developing world are responsible for so much more than the main sector businesses in which they operate. To these
co-operatives CSR is an economic necessity, not an exercise in public relations.

The Developing 300 is a work in progress. The lists in this document are based on responses received to date and are neither final or definitive at this stage.

We will seek out individual co-operatives that lend themselves to case studies due to certain strengths and successes. Case studies will highlight best practice that may be more relevant to co-operatives in developing economies than many of the world leaders that we find on the G300 list.

We may also learn something about the relevance of past and present co-operative development programmes by providing insight into issues specific to co-operatives in the developing world.

Currently available online case studies of Developing 300 organisations include:

• COOPEAGROPAL (Cost Rica)
• Kuapa Kokoo (Ghana)
• BankRakYat (Malaysia)

• Download the Developing 300 Report 2008 (2.2 MB PDF). The 2008 report contains three further case studies.
• Download the Developing 300 Report 2007 (5.8 MB PDF)