Representation

Participation in forums guarantees defense of the cooperative movement

The Brazilian Cooperative Organization is present on various public and private councils and forums, which represent and defend interests of the cooperatives. They are:

International Cooperative Alliance (ICA)
The International Cooperative Alliance is the organization for representing the cooperative movement and for defending cooperative identity at a worldwide level. With headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, it has been in existence for more than 100 years and bring together around 800 million people connected to 230 cooperative organizations in more than 100 countries. It maintains five continental offices and is also structured into sector organizations. Click here to enter the ICA page.

International Cooperative Alliance for the Americas (ICA-Americas)
This is the regional section for the ICA and follows the same principles as the ICA International with regard to recognizing the cooperative movement as a form for promoting development. The ICA-Americas has actively participated in the preparatory process for various strategic meetings at a sub-regional level. Click here to enter the ICA-Americas page.

Economic and Social Development Council (CDES)
The Economic and Social Development Council is an agency made up mostly of representatives from civil society, of a consultative nature with the Presidency of the Republic. Through promotion of social dialogue, the entity qualifies and enables discussion of the Government`s social agenda, as an institution representing society. Its principle challenge is to establish dialogue among various representations of social society in order to discuss public policies and propose measures for leveraging growth. The members of the Council are nominated by a formal act of the President of the Republic for two years. 102 council members participate in the CEDES, including Ministers of State and representatives of civil society, nominated by the President of the Republic for two year mandates, with a repeat mandate allowed. Click here to enter the CDES page.

National Food and Nutritional Security Council (Consea)
The National Food and Nutritional Security Council is a forum for articulation between government and civil January 30, 2003, the Council has a consultative nature and advises the President of the Republic on formulating policies and defining guidelines in order for the country to guarantee the right to food. The Consea today is made up of 59 council members - 42 representatives of organized civil society and 17 ministers of State and representatives of the Federal Government, as well as 16 invited observers.

National Aquaculture and Fisheries Council (Conape)
A governmental forum with the objective of advising the Special Secretariat for Aquaculture and Fishing (SEAP) in formulating policies for the sector and monitoring actions developed by the Federal Government for the sector. The Council has a consultative nature and is made up of 54 members, with 27 being from federal government agencies and 27 from entities of organized civil society. It is made up of representatives of fishers, aquaculturalists, business leaders, shippers, researchers and their correlated ministries. Presided over b y the Special Secretary for Aquaculture and Fishing of the Presidency of the Republic, the entity`s functional structure is made up of a Plenary, Secretariat and Thematic Groups, and presided over by the Special Secretary for Aquaculture and Fisheries of the Presidency of the Republic. It has 54 members, besides the Special Secretary for Aquaculture and Fisheries (27 government representatives and 27 members of civil society). Click here to enter the Conape page.

National Agricultural Policy Council (CNPA)
Both the National Agricultural Policy Council and the Agribusiness Council are agencies linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), with the latter composed in parity form of representatives of the public and private sectors. OCB representation in this chamber has the objectives of: supporting formulation of policies directed towards productive chains in which the cooperative movement in involved, articulating with public and private agents to define priority actions of common interest, seeking systematic and integrated action by the different productive segments.

Agribusiness Council (Consagro)
Both the National Agricultural Policy Council and the Agribusiness Council are agencies linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), with the latter composed in parity form of representatives of the public and private sectors. OCB representation in this chamber has the objectives of: supporting formulation of policies directed towards productive chains in which the cooperative movement in involved, articulating with public and private agents to define priority actions of common interest, seeking systematic and integrated action by the different productive segments.

Council for Cities (ConCidades)
The Council for Cities is made up of 71 full members – 41 representatives of segments of civil society and 30 from the federal, state and municipal public powers – besides 71 alternates, with two year mandates. It brings together representatives of entities from popular movements, workers, business leaders, NGOs and academic and professional entities with the mission of advising and proposing guidelines for urban development, housing policies, environmental sanitation, traffic, transportation and urban mobility. It is an instrument for assuring citizen participation in decisions on public policies. Another attribute of the Council is to contribute to municipalities in applying the City Statute, Federal Law 10.257, instituted in 2001. Click here to enter the ConCidades page. Click here to enter the ConCidades page.

Special Commission on Proagro Funds (CER)
The Special Commission on Funds makes decisions regarding funds related to determining damages and the respective indemnifications in the Proagro program, whose objectives are: release the rural producer from financial operations related to rural credit financing, whose settlement is complicated by the occurrence of natural phenomena, pests and diseases that affect goods, herds and plantations, and indemnify the rural producer’s own funds used in financial rural activities, when losses occur due to the aforementioned events.

Permanent Forum for Rural Insurance
On 12/19/2003, Law 10.823 was issued dealing with subsidy for the Rural Insurance premium. Later on, on 04/27/2004 in the Ocesp, the Permanent Forum for Rural Insurance was created, seeking to systematically follow up actions necessary for implanting the subsidy for Rural Insurance in Brazil, which works with the Productive, Legislative and Executive sectors, uniting them for developing Rural Insurance as an instrument of Agricultural.

Semi-arid Aquaculture Development Program
The program seeks to strengthen and modernize productive infrastructure in the aquaculture sector in the Semi-arid region of Brazil, stimulating its competitiveness and sustainability, through financing items necessary for economic enabling of the undertakings, except for financing for lands and land plots, transference of buildings, passenger vehicles and imported vehicles, among other items and activities excluded from this program.

National Management Committee for Universalizing Electricity
The State Management Committee is responsible for receiving demands, defining priorities, following up goal fulfillment and guaranteeing implementation of the Program. Additionally, it does inspection and follows up execution (indicators and physical inspection) of work. To do this, the Committee has a team of 3 engineers, 6 agents and 1 inspector, who travel 4 days per week to respond to any doubts and/or procedures to be executed.

Permanent Forum for Small-Scale Companies
The Permanent Forum for Small-Scale Companies, presided over and coordinated by the Ministry for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, is an environment designated for dealing with all themes related to this business segment, except for tax aspects. It has the role of guiding and advising coordination of the national policy for developing micro-companies and small-scale companies, as well as following up and assessing their implementation.

Mercosur Economic and Social Consultative Forum (FCES)
The Mercosur Economic and Social Consultative Forum is a privileged interlocution channel between civil society in the four Member States of Mercosur and the Common Market Group (GMC). It is the instance that represents the Mercosur economic and social sectors, with a consultative function. The forum has the task of analyzing and assessing the economic and social impact of the bloc’s integration policies. The entity promotes cooperative movement interests in the continental policy agenda, as well as strengthening the sector in spaces for national and international negotiation. It is made up of 36 representatives, with nine for each Member State. It is thus a space for defending civil society interests in Bloc countries.

Specialized Meeting for Mercosur Cooperatives (RECM)
The specialized Mercosul meetings discuss agreements and instruments signed related to its themes of competence, in legal instruments and recommendations agreed on by the member States. In this sphere, the Specialized Meeting for Mercosur Cooperative was created in 2001. This instance acts as an agency for governmental representation in coordination private entities from the cooperative sector in each country. Setting it up does not imply creation of bureaucratic structures, but formalization of a pre-existing situation that is favorable to cooperative activity. In this sphere, national cooperative movements were inserted into the Mercosur integration process.