Infocos
Infocos
Constituted in 2005 and with 12 years of experience, INFOCOS has become the leading Capacity Building Institute for Cooperatives Solidarity of Economy in Brazil. The Institute attends a broad variety of training and educational demands of local cooperatives, their members, mostly family farmers, and employees, mainly present in small and medium in remote areas in Brazil
Infocos was created by the movement of Credit Cooperatives of the Cresol System. The Cresol System is member Unicafes, the Union of Cooperatives of Family Farmers of Solidary Economy of Brazil.
With the municipality’s filiation of Infocos to Agricord, Infocos aims not only to expand its outreach to vulnerable groups of people within Brazil, but also to other countries in Latin America. The strength of the Institute is that it continues an active roll in developing and implementing training and education programs among it current members, ensuring it to be effective and demand driven.
The main areas of knowledge management are Cooperative Education, Management and Governance of Cooperatives, Financial Education of Members, Institutional Capacitation of Member Driven Organization and Advisory on Educational Methodology.
To make all training, programs and information available INFOCOS developed tools such as, e-learning, Rotation Pedagogy (Pedagogia da Alternância), Public – Private partnerships. Among the community of family farmers, special attention is given to women and young people.
INFOCOS 2018 IN NUMBERS:
- Training of 125 Board members
- 138 employees with graduated in cooperativism
- 1300 young people trained in cooperativism
- 8700 children of public schools attended to cooperative- and financial education
- 32.000 employees and board members attending e-learning
- 80.000 members of cooperatives attended to programs offered in partnership with local cooperatives
CONTACT:
Instituto de Formação do Cooperativismo Solidário Infocos Agri-Agência
Rua Ernesto Sanderson, 101 - Industrial
85601-657 - Francisco Beltrão - PR
contato.agriagencia@infocos.org
Website agri-agency
UNICAFES
União Nacional das Cooperativas da Agricultura Familiar e Economia Solidária
The National Union of Cooperatives for Family Agriculture and Solidarity Economy (Unicafes) was founded in June 2005, in the city of Luziânia, in the state of Goiás. The headquarters is located in Brasilia, in the Federal District and represents cooperatives nationwide. The objective is to be an instrument for the family farmers, aiming the sustainable development in the actions of support for the associates. Unicafes is a legal entity of private law and has no economic purposes.
The Non-Governmental Organization proposes the social inclusion of the cooperative by articulating economic initiatives that increase the opportunities for work, income distribution, food production, improvements in quality of life, preservation of biodiversity and reduction of inequalities.
Coverage in Brazil
Unicafes members are spread throughout the five regions of the country, which comprises approximately 600 cooperatives, which represents more than 700.000 members. Currently, there are 19 constituted Unicafes that provide assistance and articulation for Family Agriculture and Solidarity Economy: Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Maranhão, Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Alagoas, Goiás, Sergipe, Ceará, Amazonas, Tocantins and Rondônia.
Branches
Unicafes has in its midst affiliated cooperatives that work in several branches, among them are credit, production, transportation, labor, marketing and infrastructure of family agriculture and solidarity economy and others.
Strategic actions
The strategies of Unicafes are formed by specialized service bases and operational service bases. They contribute to the mobilization between the cooperative branches and qualify the actions of the bases in the diverse public spaces.
The performance of Unicafes supports through services, cooperatives in the development of its economic initiatives and in the expansion and consolidation of cooperativism in family farming and solidarity economy.