The 8th CUK Annual Scientific Conference 2025 & The 3rd Annual Co-operative Movement Stakeholders' Conference 2025
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Mr. Patrick Kilemi, Principal Secretary, State Department for Co-operatives.
MSMES website
Prof. Kamau Ngamau, PhD., EBS., Chairman, The Joint Co-operative Conference 2025 Organizing Committee and Vice Chancellor, The Co-operative University of Kenya
CUK Website
Globally, since ancient times, cooperative movement has historically served as a powerful vehicle for socio-economic empowerment, social justice, and community development within African diaspora communities worldwide. Its business model has grown steadily from the mutual aid societies of the 19 th century to contemporary credit unions (locally known as SACCOs), agricultural cooperatives and modern services worker cooperatives; these institutions have demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability in serving communities.
The year 2025 marks a pivotal moment in the history of cooperative movements in the world and African diaspora empowerment, coinciding with the 180 th anniversary of the modern cooperative movement and the culmination of the United Nation’s First International Decade for People of African Decent (2015 - 2024). This convergence presents an unprecedented opportunity to examine the historical significance, current state, and future potential of African diaspora cooperatives in addressing global challenges.
The fundamental questions that need to be answered include but not limited to: (a) How can we determine the role of cooperatives in addressing contemporary challenges facing African diaspora communities? (b) What are the innovative cooperative business models and their potential applications in various sectors for resilience and adoption? (c) What are the historical revolutions of African and African diaspora cooperatives across different geographical contexts? (d) What kind of actionable frameworks for strengthening cooperative movements in Africa and African Diaspora?
This being the 2025 UN International Year of Co-operatives, the 8 th CUK Annual conference will be held alongside the 3 rd Co-operative Movement Stakeholders’ Annual Conference to leverage on the pool of rich of stakeholders, policymakers, cooperative practitioners, professional, entrepreneurs, innovators, academia, researchers and students and harness the national networks/ forums for dissemination of the conference findings.
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