The Prout Research Institute of Venezuela is:
• Providing training to assist people with developing their projects and communities through using Prout principles.
• Developing our library of resource articles from our ongoing review of national and international research on cooperatives and cooperative training programs.
• Identifying effective and culturally-sensitive components of cooperative training and evaluation programs, incorporating them into our trainings and sharing them with others.
• Interviewing key leaders in the cooperative movement in Venezuela, in both public and private organizations, and exploring their experiences and opinions as well as providing a forum for sharing their thoughts.
• Consulting with cooperative experts in Venezuela and in other countries and exploring the incorporation of Prout objectives into the data analysis of the effectiveness of cooperatives.
• Conducting surveys of Venezuelan cooperatives to get a representative view of the current challenges and needs. We plan to revisit the cooperatives we interviewed earlier in Barlovento to develop panel data for that area and expand the geographic area to develop a fuller picture of the cooperative experience in Venezuela.
• Offering advice to interested parties about developing the necessary documentation and record keeping for effective functioning of cooperatives as well as conducting statistical quantitative analysis.
The Prout Research Insitute of Venezuela started in 2007 with an initial focus on cooperatives. We believe that this was the most valuable practical contribution that Prout could make in Venezuela at that time, due to the extraordinary number, 66,000, of functioning co-ops, the second highest number after China. There was (and still is) a great need for additional training, evaluation and support of them. Our plan included:
• Reviewing national and international research on cooperatives and cooperative training programs.
• Studying Sarkar’s writings and those of other Proutists to compile a clear Prout model for ideal cooperatives.
• Implementing a needs assessment of cooperatives and related public institutions that would examine current conditions of cooperatives.
• Analyzing available public and private documents in the country, including statistical analysis of quantitative data.
• Interviewing and consulting with key leaders in the cooperative movement in Venezuela, in both public and private organizations, to discuss their experience and opinions.
• Designing a survey questionnaire to get a representative view of the challenges and needs of Venezuelan cooperatives, and also to assist in the categorization of cooperatives for analysis purposes.
• Analyzing and triangulating data from diverse sources in order to determine precise needs and perspectives of public agencies, cooperative members, and affected communities.
• Consulting with cooperative experts in Venezuela and in other countries to discuss the analysis of data and identify effective and culturally-sensitive components of a cooperative training and evaluation program.
• Publishing both academic and popular articles on the reality of Venezuelan cooperatives and recommendations.
In the first two years (2007-2009) we have:
• Developed a library of resource articles from our review of national and international research on cooperatives and cooperative training programs.
• Studied Sarkar’s writings and those of other Proutists and compared their ideas with our survey results. We determined that many functioning cooperative match a wide variety of models through the use of an extensive questionnaire and additional research. We found that Prout objectives provide a useful framework for analyzing the effectiveness of a cooperative.
• Conducted a survey of numerous cooperatives in Barlovento.
• Determined that there is a lack of public and private documents for conducting statistical quantitative analysis.
• Interviewed and consulted with key leaders in the cooperative movement in Venezuela, in both public and private organizations, to discuss their experience and opinions.
• Designed a survey questionnaire to get a representative view of the challenges and needs of Venezuelan cooperatives, and also to assist in the categorization of cooperatives for analysis purposes.
• Consulted with cooperative experts in Venezuela and in other countries to discuss the analysis of data and identify effective and culturally-sensitive components of a cooperative training and evaluation program.
• Contributed to the development of projects within sister organizations.
• Established a permanent office, living quarters for full time staff, dormitories for guests and students, and an organic garden with many fruit trees.