Co-operatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A literature review. Issue 1 (June 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sentime, Ikiene
• Is Part Of: Journal of co-operative organization and management. Volume 7:Issue 1(2019:Jun.)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 9
• Publication Date: 2019-06
• Subjects: Co-operatives -- Community development -- DR Congo -- Social movements; Cooperative societies -- Management -- Periodicals; Cooperative societies -- Periodicals; Cooperative Behavior -- Periodicals; Cooperative societies; Cooperative societies -- Management; Periodicals; 658.04705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcom.2018.11.002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2213-297X

Abstract

Highlights: There was a large scale, government led effort to create co-operatives in the DRC for the indigenous people during the colonial period. But the literature shows that, on close examination, there was a discrepancy between the official aims and the practices of these co-operatives. The post-independence period saw the decline and collapse of the co-operative movement, except for the savings and credit co-operatives. The importance of social movements doesn't appear to have been considered by scholars involved in the studies of co-operatives in the DRC. Given this finding, the paper calls for a re-thinking of the history of co-operatives in the DRC. Abstract: This paper consists of a review of the literature on co-operatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It provides a synthesis of past knowledge on this topic and goes on to suggest, on the basis of this synthesis, that there is a critical knowledge gap in the current literature which consists of the fact that the importance of social movements doesn't appear to have been considered by scholars involved in the study of co-operatives in the DRC. Given this finding, the paper calls for a re-thinking of the history of co-operatives in the DRC in order to determine whether the current DRC co-operative sector has its origins in social movements or not, and it also briefly discusses the implications of these scenarios. The importance of this paper derives from the need for solutions to the problems of widespread poverty and underdevelopment in the DRC, and from the fact that co-operatives are viewed as important vehicles for community development which can offer a solution to these problems.