National Alliance of Social Co-Operatives (NAoSCo )

The mission of the National Alliance of Social Co-Operatives (NAoSCo - SzOSzöv)

SzOSzöv encourages the creation of independent and sustainable communities focusing on solidarity, and it promotes their operation according to its principles. It stands for the Social Co-Operations, aids their rational economic decisions, and their building a cooperative network. Furthermore it helps them to become a positive force in society strengthening solidarity.

Goals and acts of public utility
a.   helping social cooperatives to develop,
b.   securing representation for social cooperatives as employers
c.   securing representation for the members of the social cooperative, as they have special employee interests
d.   popularizing the cooperative model,
e.   being eco-friendly and the sustainable in the local community
f.   building and sustaining collaboration and networks between cooperatives

acts of public utility:

1. educating and training, skills development, dissemination of knowledge, and also scientific actions research and cultural activities
2. helping disadvantaged groups to get equal chances in life,
3. defending human- and citizen rights,
4. providing training, employment promotion and related services for the disadvantaged in the society.

Thoughts to clarify the societal functions of a social cooperative

The social cooperative is an economic organization, founded by locals, who are socially committed, affluent, and well-educated. These cooperate with the ones who are disadvantaged and excluded, so they can start to build a living space equally liveable for both parties, creating employment for those in need. The cooperative is part of the social economy, is a local community-forming organization, also has functions in connection with well-being and community. It serves as a muster (for the now dominant economical personalities, for those who only live for growth, profit, cost efficiency and productivity) how the followings can be achieved:
· to set community values instead of individual ones;
· to set long-term interests instead of short-term ones;
· to serve the community’s well-being and sustainability instead of maximizing the profit;
· organizing not market-ready but human needs-satisfying services;
· to make the presently dehumanized work a field where the individual can fulfill his or her personality .
It is only worth founding a social cooperative, if one wishes to find the niche in the market, and establish a self-sustaining economic organization, supporting the local community’s independence (to set its economical, cultural, educational and democratic values).

Facts about the social cooperatives:

Today, there are 4730 cooperatives in Hungary, with 1.800 thousand members. 300 of these are housing cooperatives, consumption cooperatives, industrial cooperatives, saving societies and student cooperatives, which represent the success of the cooperatives beyond agriculture. The stock of this 4370 cooperatives is approximately 230 billion Hungarian Forints, their income nears 800 billion, and the profit is more than 6 billion.
There is a network of cooperatives in the whole country, the number of which were 2634 in 2015.
The number of social cooperatives since accepting the 2006 Act on them has changed as follows:
In 2007: 33 In 2008: 25 In 2009: 203 In 2010: 47 In 2011: 30 In 2012: 294 In 2013: 936 In 2014: 498 In 2015: 587

The types of cooperatives show the following distribution: services: 46%; agriculture: 28%; industry: 17%; trade: 7%; and in the field of tourism: 2%.
The distribution of social cooperative funding:
•   in 2008 there were 36 cooperatives, who got 945 million HUF distributed among them from budget source.
•   In 2010 – with the aid of the EU – 2,3 billion HUF was distributed among 57 organizations.
•   In 2013 180 society had 8 billion HUF distributed among them.
An employment society got 5 billion HUF from EU resources, and in 2015 one social cooperative got 3 billion HUF through public procurement.

Activities of SzOSzöv (NAoSCo)

It provides information, advice, document samples to establish a social cooperative, also providing the list of social cooperative experts to turn to in case of further questions.
In 2014   449 new social cooperatives were founded, which increased the already existing amount of 1574. In the year of 2013 there were 32618 downloads of professional material from NAoSCo website. In 4190 cases there was also direct contact via the website's contact details. Founding material for social cooperatives were downloaded in 2835 cases. The form of the obligatory founding rules were downloaded 2157 times. The Facebook page has 529 followers. There are 200-250 new posts per week, this means 12000 posts per year, commented by 2400 people. The Facebook page gets roughly 80-90 visits per day, and 20 people share our posts each day.
Counselling via phone was conducted in 875 cases in 7 regions, personal counselling in 75 cases. Counselling via e-mail was in 187 cases. Representing of social cooperatives in the National Cooperative Council 4 times. Ministry and parliamentary discussion in case of social cooperatives: 6 times. Partner Organization negotiations in realms of social cooperatives: 12 occasions. Taking part in the EU's development contests and Green Building Innovation Cluster. Teaching social cooperatives about social cooperatives: 6 occasions. Presentation about social cooperatives in Hungary: 3 times. Informing the public and interviews: 5 occasions. Rating and advising bills about social cooperatives and opinions from their perspective. Taking part in conferences in connection with social cooperatives: 3 times.

The current state of SzOSzöv (NAoSCo) in today's Hungary

There has been a legal opportuntity to establish a cooperative since 2006, to help the situation of those, who are somehow disadvantaged in today's society, by securing them employment. Originally, they could only be founded by private persons. They were made to match the social economic environment in Europe regarding employment. Since 2011, the Hungarian government has preferred the public employment, and the social cooperatives were also established according to this Act. This means, they can also be founded by local governments. 123 local governments have founded social cooperatives with the aid of the Interior Ministry, and an employment organization for the Roma with 500 members. This 124 cooperatives get the majority of the EU social economy funding. The number of Social cooperatives can be a bit deceiving, as there are a number of cooperatives, which are now "sleepers", having been founded to apply for grants and funding, but they are not active. There are around 400 social cooperatives, which are up and running, these provide employment for ca. 3000 employees. SzOSzöv has 42 member social cooperatives, they have an income of 200 Million HUF, and has 415 employees.
We represent the whole social and economic interest of the social cooperatives, we strive to represent all types of social cooperatives, but this is extremely hard, as the sustainable social cooperatives have different demands than those sustained by local governments. Such social cooperatives, though determined to work for the benefit of the community, have no experience or knowledge necessary to operate a successful Social Cooperative).
There is a national organization (OFA), which operates from funds of the EU, that gives advice, education, development for social cooperatives.
SzOSzöv has no employees per se, everybody is taking part in it as a voluntary, which means 12 people. Our goal is giving efficient help social cooperatives so that they can reach sustainability, use knowledge, facilities and co-operations received from our international involvement.