Mr. Stanley Muchiri Farewell Statement During the13th Regional Assembly

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you today. 

I am particularly pleased to be able to take part in this 13th Regional Assembly which will be my last to attend as the President of the Alliance Africa. I have served you for about 14 years now. 

As you are aware, the Alliance Africa Regional Office has been in operation for over 50 years. It had two regional offices –one established for East, Central and Southern Africa (ROECSA) in 1968 in Moshi Tanzania, and another one in West Africa (ROWA). ROWA office was first located in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) and later moved to Burkina Faso but was later closed in 2005. The Board and Regional Assembly resolved that the regional office to be based in Nairobi, Kenya. I took office as the President in 2004 when the two sub-regional offices of the then ICA-Africa were merged to form one continental office. Before then, I was the President of the Eastern African office of the ICA-Africa.

In my 14 years of service as the President of the Alliance Africa Regional Board, we have achieved key milestones and we also went through major challenges. The office suffered financial constraints, mainly due to donors pulling out leaving it vulnerable to an extent of almost closing down.

I take this opportunity to thank the African Co-operative movement for taking the issue upon itself with the help of their governments to capitalize the office. Today as we speak, the office is housed within its own building with big potential for expansion by letting office space to others if we develop the unused land. I also would like to thank our governments that have contributed and you members of the Alliance Africa for resolving to contribute 50% of your annual subscriptions fees to assist in capitalizing the office. I would also urge those who are yet to contribute to do so for the office to realize its goal of expansion. For the last 14 years, we are back in all the sub regions and linguistic divide of our great continent and enjoy good working relations with most of our African governments and institutions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Together we have managed to develop and implement the first ever continental strategy, the Africa Co-operative Development Strategy 2013 – 2016 and subsequently 2017 – 2020 which we are still pursuing to date.  It has also given us time to implement some of our strategies from which we are seeing results such as the formation of sectoral and thematic committees. This has seen the expertise development in the organization and across our movement in addressing our challenges and seizing new opportunities.

For the last one decade, we have increased our personnel and financial capacities for the benefits of our members. We have held many conferences and events that have brought together ministers, policy-makers, Co-operative leaders and other key stakeholders from member countries and organizations to discuss and debate how to position Co-operatives in the region’s social, economic and environmental development agenda. Common findings of these fora are the Co-operative Movement has a critical role to play in increasing Africa’s productivity and competitiveness by informing policymaking and advancing its implementation.

All these great accomplishments can’t be the work of one, it’s all of us. This happened because of you, the members of the Alliance Africa and our respective governments. You regularly step forward and volunteer to do so much and contribute in so many ways. Thank you for demonstrating what it means to put service above self, to engage and change lives.

Together we can make other key milestones in the development of this great movement, and I look forward to everyone’s commitment and cooperation in achieving our goals.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over the years, I have learnt that for the co-operative model of enterprise to thrive and prosper, it is vital that we continue to support the diversification of the co-operative economy. But it is even more important that we extend and develop our presence in every part of Africa so that co-operatives can play a real role in bringing hope, fighting poverty, building homes, jobs, health programmes, education, and, of course, enhancing the aspirations and life choices for so many, particularly the young.

Now is the time to think big. Co-operative economic success and democratic governance ensures that no one is left behind and therefore contributes to eradicating poverty. Co-operatives are instrumental to achieve food security and help end hunger by allowing farmers to produce more and better quality food through the power of the collective. Co-operatives help to empower women in the world, especially in countries where they are vulnerable. In particular, Co-operatives provide women with employment opportunities, and contribute to financial inclusion and literacy efforts.

With our values and principles of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity, co-operatives are strong and lasting businesses that bring communities together. Co-operatives are created from a collective need making them true builders of sustainability as they help people reaching their aspirations and offer access to goods or services without exploitation. Co-operatives are significant economic and social actors.

I maintain a deep conviction in the strength of the co-operative movement. More than ever, we are at a pivotal moment where our co-operative contribution can make a tremendous difference in communities seeking to find a new direction in the face of global challenges.

Our collective challenge is to live up to this moment.

If we truly believe that our model of enterprise with its unique ownership model and our values and principles, is a good one, we now have a once in a generation opportunity to take a massive step forward, and really grow our co-operative movement in terms of visibility, influence and size.

We have been able to raise the standards of co-operatives in Africa for the last one decade and this is such an important and exciting moment to be a co-operator.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have decided to retire because of the weight of my age over my shoulders and the urge for peaceful handover of power in Africa when one has given all he/she had.

As I leave, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, a sense of satisfaction looking at how far we have come and how much we have done together. Nevertheless, I will miss all of you. I have developed a huge network of friends and family through the Co-operative movement. I will miss both my short and long trips as I went to represent you. I will miss those conversations where I felt I could say more and how we Africans and the African Co-operative Movement is often misunderstood and perhaps we don’t know yet our true value and underestimate our great potentials. I will miss those sleepless nights when I used to think on how best to craft strategies which reflect all our aspirations as African Co-operators.

I have been lucky to work with an able and dedicated secretariat. They have captured our vision and aspirations and I know and urge them to work even harder in ensuring long lasting sustainable sources of incomes for our office. More specifically, I would like to see the office developing their assets to sustain itself and for better services to our members. The dream of a high-rise building for office renting is dear to me and I call upon both the movement and our governments in paying their dues to the Alliance Africa Endowment Trust Fund for the sustainability of the office and better services for all.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to thank the Regional Board and the Regional Director and CEO for their support during all these years. None of my work would be possible without their support and loyalty. I also thank all our members for their trust in me and commitment to seeing our movement moving forward. I will not forget our partners who have supported us all these years and ask them to continue assisting us.

I wish you good luck in the upcoming events, and thank you for listening to me.

Yours Sincerely,

MR. STANLEY C. MUCHIRI

PRESIDENT, ALLIANCE AFRICA