CWS News

One of the constraints to develop a cooperative faced by the savings and credit groups (KSP) that Church World Service assists in Poso District is the absence of networking with other institutions.  In addition, these groups have no registered status. There is a lack of awareness among the groups on the importance of building networking and establishing registered entity.

Recognizing this, Church World Service, conducted a one-day workshop that aimed to build a network between KSPs and the government agency of Cooperative and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Poso District on June 22, 2010. This workshop was part of our Strengthening Society and Economic Development (SEED) program, funded by Finn Church Aid (FCA) and CWS.

“The government of Poso District still needs other institutions like NGOs and the private sector to foster development and improvement in Poso District, especially in the sector of  cooperative and micro, small and medium enterprises despite the various activities the agency has carried out in this sector,” explained Rusna Mangun, SE, M.Si, the Head of Cooperative and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Agency of Poso District.

A participant doing presentation on her organization. Each representative of credit group was given opportunity to present their organization.
(CWS Indonesia)

Until today, there are 194 registered cooperatives, but only 120 of which are active. There are numerous government-established cooperatives that are only a name and a building without members and activities. “Therefore what CWS has done by starting to develop KSPs through education and self-fund approach is a step ahead to  cooperative sustainability,” added Rusna Mangun in the opening speech. Rusna also hoped that the existing KSPs would be able to improve their activities for wider community outreach.

Twenty two participants attended the workshop. They were representatives of six KSPs of Pamona Tenggara, Pamona Utara and Poso Pesisir Selatan Sub-districts and staff of CWSPoso office. The workshop provided an opportunity for each representative to deliver a presentation on group progress, obstacles, and opportunity for further development.

The head of Cooperative Empowerment Agency, Agus Antjura, SE and the head of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Partnership Section, Suardi Sukimin, SH were the resource persons who shared their advice on solutions to the problems faced by the KSPs.

Both resource persons laid out the agency’s relevant programs that can support KSPs so that they can develop into a registered cooperative. In addition, they explained about the advantages of being a registered organization. The recommendation of the workshop, was that all KSPs were to register to the Agency of Cooperative and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the Agency would support two KSPs; Harapan Baru of Sepe Village and Tunas Harapan of Tanamawau Village to become a cooperative. The Agency also hoped that Church World Service would keep providing supports for people in Poso Disrict particularly in the area of sustainable small business development.