Potential and challenges of the global youth cooperatives’ movement in the 21st century / Khairul Azfar Adzahar, Mohd Fazil Jamaludin and Mohd Shafiz Saharan

• Main Authors: Adzahar, Khairul Azfar, Jamaludin, Mohd Fazil, Saharan, Mohd Shafiz
• Format: Book Section
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kedah 2023
• Subjects: Social values; Youth
• Online Access: https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/100251/1/100251.pdf; https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/100251/

Cooperatives can play an essential role in resolving youth’s difficulties while also supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically, SDG 8 on decent work and SDG 4 on quality education for youth. According to (Plan International, 2020), around 75 million young people worldwide are unemployed, and nearly 90 per cent of young people aged 15 to 24 live in developing nations. Youth's lack of work experience may cause them to fall into the "experience trap". They are unable to get employment and thus cannot gain the required job experience. In addition, during economic downturns, according to the 'last in, first out' principle, young individuals may be the last to be hired due to a lack of experience and the first to be fired due to a lack of work (International Labour Organization, 2012). Cooperatives can be found in every state and numerous industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, real estate, and retail. Cooperatives address voids in the market by delivering high-quality goods and services at reduced prices, along with superior customer service. Youth play a vital role in the future of cooperatives, which are increasingly recognised as essential, not just for tackling economic inequality but also for achieving sustainable development goals. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the prospects and key difficulties facing young members of cooperatives today. The obstacles faced by youth-run cooperatives are not dissimilar to those encountered by other cooperatives. The difficulty of incorporating cooperative learning into the curriculum and freeing up the time required for it is one of the well-known obstacles to the youth cooperative movement. In addition, the finding that curricular alignment and time factors predict the adoption of cooperative learning offers educators direction for equipping them to transfer cooperative knowledge to students (Buchs et al., 2017). Moreover, youth cooperatives face challenges in the areas of corporate governance, which refers to the decision-making process within a cooperative and whether it promotes the co-op's goals or the needs of its members; leadership, which refers to the capacity of cooperative leaders and managers to develop and implement effective business strategies to achieve the co-op's goal and objectives; and cooperative member engagement and contribution to the success of the cooperative. Cooperatives must assess their governance and leadership practises and participate in programmes that incorporate and encourage member participation for these and other reasons. They will be in a much stronger position to face future problems and thrive as lucrative and sustainable businesses that will continue to serve their communities for generations.