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Cooperative societies are often formed by people who voluntarily come together to bring about positive changes including social, cultural, and economical changes in the lives of its members. It is an organization that is for the members, of the members, and by the members. Department of Cooperatives (DoC), which is under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives in Bangladesh, is the responsible government authority working to register the cooperative societies of the country. But, in the field level, local government offices of DOC with manpower shortage face severe challenges in providing information on registration process like- the cooperative laws, rules, and policies and all the record documents required for registration. This makes the cooperative members with limited registration knowledge to seek resort to unscrupulous brokers, who often take advantage of their vulnerability- by charging excessive money to prepare record documents and register the cooperative society on behalf of its member. Considering the challenges of cooperative members, DOC have started an online application process, which makes it easier for members to request for registration, and within two days of the application, DOC arranges for a training before registration, to simplify the complicated registration process for all cooperative members.

“Registration process simplification” through distinctive online application process and training have unprecedented impact in the formation of effective and sustainable cooperative societies. It leverages ubiquity of web platform, to ensure local government officials becomes aware of cooperative members’ registration needs and remain responsive and accountable in addressing core problems of service delivery system. This makes government officials arrange training for cooperative members so they learn about necessary cooperative laws before registration and remain directly involved in preparation of record documents. Involvement of members and formation of management committee for each cooperative before registration process brings many benefits to its members.

Transformative actions are required to address challenges rising from enormous disparities that exists within a country. “Registration simplification process” through training is eliminating brokers from equation, ensuring democratic participation of cooperative members in registration and formation of sustainable cooperatives; capable of ensuring socio-economic development of its members. Following replication, a change was brought in the draft cooperative law 2017, 12(3) mentioning urgence of training before registration in forming cooperative societies. Leading to reduced inequalities of outcome from formation of cooperatives and enhanced opportunities to uplift members from poverty. Relevant to SDG goal 1 & 10: no poverty; and reduced inequalities.

The members joining cooperative societies in Bangladesh are poor. Vulnerable population of the country like- women, elderly, and people with physical disabilities also becomes a member of a cooperative society to bring improvement in their socio-economic condition. Through training initiative, members of cooperative societies of ten piloting unions of Panchagarh sadar sub-district were able to receive advice regarding their profession from relevant government official. The experts’ advice of an official from relevant government department helped many cooperatives to run their economic activities and generate positive impact in the lives of its members. Apart from this, the cooperative societies that are forming are creating employment opportunities for many, leading to total employment of the country. For example- Agricultural cooperative societies of Panchagarh District recruited 7,000 people for running cooperative based activities and increased their agricultural production. At its core, the training that arranged advice on cooperative members profession dealt with one of the biggest challenges faced by DOC; a significant manpower shortage in the sub-district cooperative offices to provide citizens essential registration process services. Since, sub-district cooperative offices received online application first from cooperative societies, they were able to allocate a date and time to provide training ahead of registration date.

Previously, trainings for cooperative members were arranged after registration of cooperative societies. Considering the complex nature of cooperative registration, a timely training by sub-district cooperative officer, reduces inefficiencies existent in local government offices and creates public institution that is accountable in delivering effective services. This initiative is using existing cooperative offices to provide training to cooperative members regarding registration processes. Through training, cooperative members are learning about essential cooperative laws and getting directly involved in preparing record documents. This made registration easier for members of cooperative societies. Moreover, direct involvement of members’ in registration process made cooperatives effective and sustainable.

First-of-its-kind. One of the most important service DOC provides to citizens is registration of cooperatives. a2i, innovation intermediary within Bangladesh Government, nurturing innovation culture in civil servants through innovative mediation “empathy training,’ encouraged a sub-district cooperative officer and provided technical support in designing “citizen-centric registration process.” Benefits of cooperative members- a) receiving timely information on cooperative registration through training; b) unscrupulous brokers who take excessive money and delay registration are not getting opportunity; c) members are able to form management committee, ensuring smooth continuity of its activities; and d) direct involvement in their own cooperative registration, makes it sustainable cooperative.

Around the world, cooperative societies are formed for the socio-economic development of its members. This initiative of DOC thus took democratic member control of cooperative members as its core guiding principle. Enhanced involvement of cooperative members in the registration process, eliminated middlemen in piloting areas, saving a total of 29 to 85 days in time and between BDT/- 19,655.00 to 39,655.00 as cost in each cooperative society registration. The result generated from the ten piloting areas encouraged Rangpur sadar sub-district family planning office to mobilize their human resources in providing adolescents training regarding their health and reproduction.

The initiative was a realization of a sub-district cooperative officer of the hassles citizens go through. With deep level of ownership, Panchagarh, sadar upzailla (sub-district) cooperative officer changed its institutions service delivery system and developed effective mechanism to response with accountability. This initiative of “requesting for registration through online application” and “registration simplification process through training” required minimal resource. Trainings were provided in already existent cooperative offices of ten piloting unions by the sub-district cooperative officer and an assistant inspector of Panchagarh, sadar sub-district cooperative office, requiring only BDT/- 50,000 to buy record documents for cooperative members of the trainings.

The sustainability of the training initiative is evident through twenty-one cooperative societies that were formed. Every member of a cooperative society learned about cooperative laws and regulations. This helped them to form a cooperative that is effective. The training provided ensured that all members receive necessary record documents for free and directly gets involved in the registration process of their respective cooperative. Involving members in preparing record documents for registration, eliminated brokers from the equation. This democratic involvement of members in the registration, ensured their full-participation, making the cooperatives sustainable in the future. Since cooperative societies forms social circle of vulnerable population, it achieves common social and economic goals of the group; this simplification of registration process helped many people to form their own cooperative society and run cooperative based economic activities for the substantial growth of respective cooperative. In this training initiative advice was also given on the respective profession of different cooperative by an expert from the relevant government department. This helped many cooperatives to run their economic activities, leading them to benefit significantly from forming a cooperative society. Ultimately, it made the whole registration process simpler, ensuring quick delivery of registration certificates in one to two visits.

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a2i an innovation intermediary within Bangladesh Government did an outcome study to figure out effectiveness of this project after successful replication in 7 sub-districts of 28 sub-districts of Bangladesh. Qualitative and quantitative method were applied in determining effectiveness of simplification of service process. Sample survey and face to face interview were done with members of cooperatives and key informant interviews were conducted with district cooperative officers, sub-district cooperative officers, and inspectors of cooperative offices to gain understanding of advantages of registration process simplification including Time, cost, and visit reduction and citizens’ satisfaction level. Recommendations were drawn to further simplify process.

Two variables were taken into account (one on the way in which cooperative members are receiving information about registration process; and one on assistance they are receiving to complete registration), to understand the responsiveness and accountability of DOC in delivering effective services. Since, the initiative focused on “registration process simplification,” study considered variables, which pointed towards significant time, cost, and visit reduction of cooperative members’ from elimination of brokers. The success of this intervention depended heavily on members’ satisfaction. Thus, a variable was considered to project number of effective and sustainable cooperative societies forming after training of “registration process simplification.”

The projection on formation of new cooperative societies indicates that the steps DOC took as an accountable public institution has been effective. There was also an indication of time, cost, and visit reduction by 74 %( 52days), 58 %( 7 visits), 74% cost (BDT/-2473) respectively. Thus, after the outcome evaluation, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives decided to incorporate the recommendations to bring further improvement in the “registration process simplification service” of all the new replication areas of the country.

a2i, the first public service innovation lab that is responsible to nurture innovation culture among the civil servants provided technical knowledge support and played a catalytic role in designing the initiative. The initiative of providing training before registration had had a profound impact in the lives of 10,426 cooperatives. This made a2i to step forward and evaluate the initiative by conducting an outcome study in the replication areas of the country. The seven sub-districts that were chosen from the 28-sub-districts where the initiative was replicated generated enough evidence on the advantage of “registration process simplification” and highlighted key areas for improvement for department of cooperatives. In the implementation stage, partnerships were formed with different government departments, so the cooperative members who are attending the training on “registration process simplification” learns from the experts about their own profession and run the cooperative society based economic activities for the substantial growth of the members of the societies.

From the training, the members’ of different cooperative societies are receiving advice on their profession from a relevant government official and learning new ways to run activities of their cooperative. This made members of cooperative societies to be vigilant about their cooperative based production. Now, members of different cooperatives wants to connect to the market and get a fair price for their production. The training provided to cooperative members can also arrange for advice on technological advancements so they can run an e-commerce platform from their respective cooperative and get a fair price for their production.