Building Bridges with BAME Communities in the UK

Zainul Sachak, an elected member of The Co-operatives Group Manchester Area Committee, describes the challenges of engaging with BAME(Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) communities in the UK for the co-operative movement and their plans for the year ahead in the UN International Year of Co-operatives.

"Is the Co-operative movement reaching out to the rich and diverse ethnic communities of modern Britain? Or is it as one person put it at a recent BAME conference “Pale, male and stale”. Many of these communities share similar values to the co-operative movement. I am one of a very few elected BAME Area Committee members in the Co-operative Group. Although I became involved with the co-operative movement recently in the UK, I originally came from Tanzania where co-operatives are thriving. Simply many of the BAME communities have difficulty relating to the Rochdale Pioneers.  Nearly 15% of the UK population is BAME.

There is growing concern within both the Co-operative Group and the Co-operative movement as a whole in the UK about the lack of representation/engagement from BAME communities despite many coming originally from countries with well-established co-operatives.  Debate and discussions on ways to change this have been on-going for some time.

With the changing demographics in the UK, the BAME community will play a significant part in the future prosperity of the country. With the 2012 UN International Year of Cooperatives due to launch very shortly, it’s important we take positive action. We have a unique opportunity to really demonstrate the values of our founding fathers the Rochdale Pioneers in beginning this change to include all aspects of British Society.        

To this end I recently championed a BAME conference ‘Building Bridges’ with the support of the Co-operative Group. It objectives were to explain what the Co-operative Group were doing to engage with the BAME sector and what services and products it could offer to support them.  I strongly believe that we need to encourage greater BAME representation at all levels within the Co-operative movement to truly demonstrate its inclusion of all members of British society.

The event was a huge success with over 60 delegates representing a wide cross section of BAME Communities across Greater Manchester including representatives from Asian, Afro Caribbean and African community organisations and public sector agencies. The event was also supported by a number of the Co-operative Group businesses, Co-operatives UK and Co-operative North West, and Mokeses Kitchen (a social enterprise producing Caribbean food).

Moira Lees, the Co-operative Group Company Secretary, opened the event with a brief speech about her role as the Diversity Champion for The Co-operative Group Management Executive. She stressed the importance of encouraging greater participation from the BAME community in the democratic structure of the Group and trading with its various businesses.

Persuasive talks from 3 keynote speakers followed. These included Paul Flowers, Chair of the Co-operative Banking Group and Diversity Champion on the Co-operative Group Board, Sir Howard Bernstein, CEO of Manchester City Council, and Dorothy Francis, CEO of the Co-operative and Social Enterprise Development Agency. All spoke passionately about the challenges to encourage BAME communities to play an active role in the Co-operative movement and their particular importance to the long term prosperity of the local economy. They were also unequivocal about providing services and products that meet the needs of the BAME community and removing barriers that may limit participation in the democratic structure of the Co-operative Group. They believe that attitudes and behaviours across the movement must change.  A case study was presented by John Mayford, Director of Olmec, a social enterprise focused on supporting the development of co-operatives and  BAME leaders in collaboration with TRESCOM, a research and training organisation on diversity issues.   Delegates were also able to attend a number of short workshops which gave them greater awareness into various aspects of the Co-operative Group.

Whilst the conference generated a lot of discussion, it’s important that momentum is maintained and we plan more activities and events to encourage more involvement from the community. In particular many delegates want us to engage directly at grass roots level to improve their understanding of the co-operative movement and mentoring potential leaders.  Although still in the planning, the type of events may include running workshops tailored to each community need e.g. what is the co-operative movement?; support for setting up a co-operative enterprise; how to raise funds for projects and sponsoring cultural events including FairTrade. We hope some of these events can be delivered in collaboration with Co-operatives UK and Co-operative North West.  Whilst a number of ideas have already been proposed to get better representation of BAME communities in the democratic structure including co-option, I believe in the long-term this need to be underpinned by creating co-operative advocates (empowerment) from within the community which would encourage their active participation in decision making in the Co-operative Group and the movement as a whole.

Indeed with the finale of the 2012 UN International Year of the Cooperatives planned to be held in Manchester in October 2012, this would be ideal opportunity to celebrate this with a major cultural event with the BAME communities in the UK.

I am passionate about this. We must maintain the momentum and continue to challenge both ourselves and the Co-operative businesses to remove any barriers that discourage involvement."

For more information get in touch: 

zainul.sachak@cfs.coop