Weighing Standards of Co-operative Societies in Zambia

This book assesses the extent to which co-operative societies in Mpika district, Zambia complied with the International Co-operatives Alliance (ICA) standards reflected by principles of: voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic participation, autonomy and independence, education, training and information, cooperation among cooperatives and concern for the community. The national criterion of categorizing cooperative enterprises does not take into consideration the ICA standards. Findings show that 100% of enterprising and non-enterprising cooperatives were non-compliant with the principle on independence and autonomy and this resulted in the compromise with other ICA principles. The study concludes that there is no significant association between enterprise category of cooperatives and compliance with ICA principles. This implies that cooperative societies regardless of their enterprise category in Zambia are similar in the compliance and non-compliance with ICA standards.