FAO.org

December 13, 2022

The Development Law Service took part in a hybrid modality dialogue on “Gaps and Opportunities for a Model Law on Agrifood Cooperatives”, to discuss the drafting of a Model Law on Agrifood Cooperatives for the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (PARLATINO). This initiative is part of a collaboration and technical assistance agreement between FAO and PARLATINO. It was organized by the Associativity and Cooperatives team of the Prosperous and Inclusive Rural Societies Regional Initiative of the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the regional organization Cooperatives of the Americas, with the support of the Spanish Cooperation and the Mexican Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AMEXCID), provided through the Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger and the Mesoamerica Hunger-Free Program AMEXCID-FAO.

Participants included representatives of the Network of Agricultural Cooperatives of the Americas REDACOOP, the Confederation of Rural Cooperatives of Paraguay CONCOPAR, the National Confederation of Cooperative Federations and Silvoagricultural Associations of Chile CAMPOCOOP, the National Association of Cooperatives of Chile, and the Cooperative Confederation of the Republic of Argentina COOPERAR, among others. 

Discussions centered on issues such as the need to promote education for the cooperatives members, digital transformation and issues related to tax incentives, financing and constitutional recognition of cooperatives. The participants also identified the main challenges for agrifood cooperatives in the region and suggested actions, to incorporate them into a future model law. 

FAO stressed the importance of model laws as valuable and flexible tools for regulatory unification, facilitating international cooperation. At the same time, model laws provide a margin for each State to define and incorporate its own priorities. The drafting of a model law in agrifood cooperatives will provide an excellent opportunity to include a sustainable, inclusive and resilient food systems approach, with a gender focus, into an initiative of regional scope.

This event took place in the context of an ongoing public consultation with various cooperative actors related to agrifood systems, as well as other dialogues with the parliamentarians and technical stakeholders promoted by FAO. The findings and conclusions of these consultations will be used to draft a proposal for a model law. The online consultation ends on January 13, 2023.

For more details about the online consultation, click here: Online Consultation (available in Spanish).

PARLATINO-FAO Alliance

Some of the results promoted by the PARLATINO-FAO Alliance, supported by the governments of Mexico and Spain -through their international cooperation programs with FAO, "Mesoamerica Hunger-Free Program AMEXCID-FAO" and the "Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger"- have been the development and approval of the Model Law on Family Agriculture; the Model Law on Artisanal or Small-Scale Fishing and the Model Law on Community Water and Sanitation Systems; and the Guidelines for Recovery with Rural Transformation and Climate Action, together with Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean.