The vocabulary used across the Learn section, defined once. The full glossary is in the handbook; a selection of key terms is published here.
Cooperative work carries a vocabulary of its own, and much of it is not obvious from the outside. A special purpose vehicle is not a lorry. A federation is not a club. The terms below are the ones that recur across the Learn section and in both handbooks, defined once so that the rest reads more easily.
This page carries a selection. The complete glossary, with every term used in the cooperative literature, is published in the handbooks themselves.
A collection point where commodities produced within a ward are gathered before moving on to processing or to a county industrial park.
The meeting at which the members of a cooperative exercise their ownership: approving accounts, electing the management committee, and confirming any partnership before it proceeds.
A national organisation representing cooperatives across a sector or the movement as a whole.
Regions with low and unreliable rainfall, where livestock rather than crop production dominates and pastoralist livelihoods are concentrated.
A group formed around a single value chain — often within a school, church or community — that works alongside a producer cooperative and can become the seed of one.
A county-level facility for processing and value addition, fed by aggregation centres and serving intra-county, inter-county and international trade.
The contracting model under which one party designs a facility, procures the equipment and builds it. An area in which an equity investor may participate directly.
The national tier of the cooperative structure, above the unions, representing a value chain or the movement and handling forward and backward market linkages.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. The international food safety standard that processing and handling facilities must meet to reach export markets.
The first tier: the society a producer joins directly, at village or ward level.
Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation. A cooperative providing savings and credit services to its members.
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. The automation and control systems used in industry, and — as SCADA-Net — for shared, distance-learning laboratories across institutions.
The second tier: a union of primary cooperatives at sub-county or county level, able to hold assets such as factories on behalf of its members.
A separate legal entity through which a cooperative invests jointly with outside partners in production, processing or distribution — ring-fencing the investment so that the cooperative retains its autonomy.
Technical and Vocational Education and Training. The centres that supply practical skills and, in partnership with cooperatives, adapt technology to local conditions.
A distinct stage between production and consumption — for example ginning, processing, cold storage, distribution or retail — each of which can hold employment.
This page carries the terms used across the Learn section. The complete glossary, with every term used in the cooperative literature, is published in the handbooks.
Shirikiana —> to work with one another. The founding values of the cooperative movement, self-help, self-responsibility and solidarity, remain the most practical basis for collective enterprise. We join knowledge, applied action and ethical responsibility in member-owned, member-governed enterprise, guided by the International Cooperative Alliance’s principle of concern for community. We proceed incrementally, attribute every partner by name, and distinguish demonstrated capacity from stated intent.