The one-day Learning Sharing Workshop was held on 8th August 2019 in Gulariya, Baridya andorganized by the District Cooperative Union(DCU)Bardiya, in coordination with the National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCF/N) and withsupport ofGIZ.The main objective of the workshop was to share the ideasregarding service delivery, best practices, opportunities and challenges among the 7 DCUs (Banke, Bardiya, Kailali, Dang, Surkhet, Pyuthan and Rupandehi) of Province No 5, Karnali Province andSudurpaschimProvince.In order to learn from each other and to adopt good practices the participants discussed actively.
The workshop was jointly inaugurated by the Board member of NCF, BhimTulachan, the Chairperson of Bardiya DCU, Gopal Paudel and the Official from the Cooperative Training Center, Banke, Shree Krishna Nepal. The program was chaired by the Chairperson of DCU Bardiya, Gopal Paudel.
As the organizer, the DCU Bardiya welcomed all the participants. Then, all the 7 DCUs gavetheir presentation during which they shared information regarding their services to their members, good practices, opportunities and challenges.All the participants actively participated in the discussionafter every presentationand discussedpossible areas of collaborationfor their mutual benefit. After the presentation session, a panel discussion was organized, which was moderated by the Deputy General Manager of NCF, Babul Khanal. DCUs’ Chairpersons, Vice Chairpersons, Mangers and other officials took part in the discussion. After the panel discussion, all DCUs prepared their action plan for the coming year and presented it.
The Technical Advisor of GIZ, Ram Chandra Lamichane emphasized the implementation of theplansinto real practices.Only then such a workshop will be beneficial. He also expressed his delight to see the progress of some DCUs. He requested all the DCUs that if we work together with genuine commitment to do better, we can be self-sustained and can give more support to the members, the primary cooperatives.
On behalf of the participants, the Chairperson of DCU Surkhet, Amrit Bahadur B.C. insisted to organize such a workshop regularly.That willhelp to know how to improve our activities and evaluate our organization’s performance in comparison to other DCUs, and to our own performance from the past. As the special guest of the program, and also the Board member of NCF, BhimTulachan, focused on the need of cooperatives to have access to thelocal level governments. He believed that we can make cooperatives function very effectivelyifwe upgrade and update ourselves and our organization according to the true cooperative principles for the benefits of themembers.
Similarly, as aspecial guest andofficial from the Cooperative Training Center, Banke, Shree Krishna Nepal,emphasized the importance for cooperatives to functionaccording to the Cooperative Act 2074 and the Cooperative Niyamawali2075. Moreover, he insisted that there should not be any discrimination between consumers cooperatives and multipurpose cooperatives in terms of tax.
The Program Officer of NCF, Amit Adhikari shared the main concluding points of the workshop which were:
After the decision to organize the next Learning and Sharing Workshop in Rupandehi, the workshop ended.