The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has issued a book featuring the voices of more than 70 co-operators in the agri-food sytems of the Near East and North Africa.
Voices of cooperators is “above all, a celebration of people”, the report says, with young leaders, farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, food processors and producers “speaking from the places where food systems are lived every day: fields, rangelands, markets and co-operative spaces across the Near East and North Africa region.
“Their voices remind us of a simple truth,” the book says. “When people come together, they can transform their communities and their food systems.”
These stories, the study says, “are about identity, unity and the belief that real change happens when people come together”, in line with the addition by Unesco of co-operatives to the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
In sharing the stories, the book offers insight not just into the agri food systems of the region, but a powerful advocacy for the co-op model.
“Co-operation is not theory,” it says, “it is practice. It begins in villages and communities where farmers meet, decide together, take risks collectively and build value that stays local. It is women stepping into leadership. It is bringing youth back into farming. It is producers strengthening food security while caring for land and water. Through shared governance and mutual support, co-operatives turn vulnerability into resilience and isolation into opportunity.”
And the old maxim that co-operation is born out of crisis rings true here, with the region hit by climate shocks, scarcity, economic uncertainty, conflict and persistent inequalities – and some of the highest levels of food insecurity in the world.
The stories bear out this state of crisis and also the sense of heritage. Mina Abdaoui, member of cal El Hajeb Association and Azul Amazigh Community Network in Morocco, tells of “the rhythm of the land, the seasons and the herds. In our community, livestock farming and agriculture were not merely economic activities; they represented a way of being, a living memory passed down from generation to generation by families living a semi-nomadic lifestyle.”
But she also offers a harrowing account of the disaster that befell this community. “Slowly, the world changed. Rainfall became scarcer. Pastoral lands deteriorated. The rights of Indigenous Peoples began to erode, while collective lands were taken over or subjected to new laws decided without the participation of rights holders.
“What once fed families became fragile, uncertain and sometimes even costly. Many residents left the village, driven by poverty and a lack of prospects.”
In response, women of the village formed a co-op to promote local produce using their traditional knowledge. But life has been tough. “Today, only seven of us remain. Seven women who refuse to give up.
“Our co-operative is fragile, but it exists. It lives in every gesture, in every handful of grain transformed, in every strand of wool worked with patience. It lives above all in our deep conviction that rural women deserve opportunities, respect and a place in the decisions that concern their land and their future.”
Echoes of this defiant spirit are found throughout the book. They are there when Attallah Ali Al-Amareen, head of Al-Amareen Agricultural Cooperative, tells of water scarcity, rising temperatures, which brought about the failure of a 100-dunum alfalfa farm.
But the co-op rallied, building a multi-purpose hall for the community, managing the town’s drinking water system, and launching a bus line.
“What gives me strength,” writes Al-Amareen, “is the spirit of collective action. In moments of conflict, like the land disputes that once divided our community, it was co-operation that brought peace. We formed two co-operatives, shared water resources, and worked side by side. Today, we are stronger together.”
Peacebuilding – a theme increasingly stressed by the co-op movement in recent years – is one of the recurring notes in the book, alongside efforts towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, market access, environmental sustainability, knowledge sharing, youth empowerment and financial inclusion.
Co-ops featured range from the Al-Baha Beekeepers Cooperative in Saudi Arabia, which is sharing knowledge and innovation, to the Al-Salt Women’s Agricultural Cooperative Multipurpose Association in Jordan which is working to promote gender equality and improve water management in a time of scarcity.
And there are stories of hope in places torn by war, such as Al-Ibda’ Cooperative, where women are protecting food systems under occupation in Palestine. “No problem scares us,” writes co-op president Amna Fayez Salem Mustafa. If we had been afraid, we would have closed the co-operative on our first day.”
From Sudan, there is a courageous account from Al-Thawra Tenth Neighbourhood Cooperative Association, which works to provide essential goods at suitable prices.
When conflict broke out, writes vice president Nour Alhuda Ali Jaafar, “Our co-operative played a critical role in supporting internally displaced persons (IDPs), helping them settle in the neighbourhood and providing meals through our community kitchen, Al-Takiya. Despite continuous shelling and security risks, we managed to keep our store open and stocked with goods for all residents.”
Such stories, the book concludes, “are living proof that a vibrant co-operative movement is already transforming food systems across the Near East and North Africa region.
“These narratives reveal how women, youth and communities have responded to crises not with despair, but with innovation, solidarity and courage. From drought to displacement, from market exclusion to climate shocks, these cooperatives did not wait for solutions, they created them.
“They drew from ancestral practices and cultural values, while embracing new technologies, digital tools and inclusive governance. They turned isolation into connection, scarcity into opportunity and tradition into innovation.”
To support such efforts in the face of global challenges, the book urges coherent policymaking on co-ops, and empowerment of co-ops with the means to act, from investment to infrastructure. For co-ops themselves, inclusive governance, knowledge sharing and partnerships are all vital if they are to transform the region’s agrifood system, it adds.
