The International Cooperative Alliance’s Africa Regional Office (ICA Africa) organized the Co-operative Leaders/Manager and Ministerial Conference Technical Committee (MCTC) in Maputo, Mozambique between May 27-31, 2018 on “Cooperatives for Zero Hunger in Africa”. The conference brought together governments, cooperative movement, and other key stakeholders to discuss how cooperatives could leverage their model to contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with a specific focus on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 on ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.

Guy Tchami from ILO Cooperatives Unit presented the findings from an ILO/ICA Africa joint study on cooperative competitiveness and potential for export and import in selected Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries at the meeting.

A follow-up consultative meeting on the establishment of the Alliance Africa Agricultural Co-operative Organization (AAACO) also took place within the framework of the ICA-EU partnership (#coops4dev) to advance international cooperative development. The formation of AAACO is a follow-up to the recommendations concerning agricultural cooperatives came out of the previous consultative meeting held in Casablanca, Morocco on 23 May 2017.