Honduras
1.107
Honduras
Key figures
Number of cooperatives per sector
Honduras - Key Figures Report.pdf
(295.13 KB)
Key figures
Informe de Mapeo Cooperativo Honduras.pdf
(280.34 KB)
Key figures
Research overview
Responding to challenges and existing knowledge gaps facing the cooperative movement, this mapping research seeks to provide exhaustive information on cooperatives around the world.
This is achieved through a process jointly conducted by the ICA and its four regional offices – Cooperatives of the Americas, Cooperatives Europe, ICA Africa, and ICA Asia-Pacific – using a common methodology, designed with the support of external experts from the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse).
Each office collected the input of ICA members present in the countries within its geographic area, by using a common questionnaire, and completing it with relevant national statistics, in order to obtain a picture of the national situation. As a result, the data above is collected following two strategies: 1) a survey targeting ICA cooperative members 2) collecting national statistics already available in the country. The numbers above provide aggregated data from ICA members on the number of cooperatives, as well as the number of cooperative employees and memberships in the country. More methodological information is available in the full report. In Honduras, the data is collected for the reference year 2017 and 2019.
Mapping out cooperatives in each country provides a more precise picture of the cooperative context at national and regional levels, enhances the movement's visibility, networking, partnerships opportunities, as well as advocacy, and empowers cooperators by providing tools for positive change.
This webpage presents a snapshot of the research results for Honduras. For more information and the full research results, you can download the report by clicking on the links above.
History
The origin of Honduran cooperativism dates back to the last century according to Confecoop; the first expressions were manifested in the last quarter of the 19th century with the emergence of a mutual organization known as Sociedad de Ladinos de Márcala, department of La Paz in 1876. This is the oldest antecedent in the history of organized cooperativism. In 1930, the Managerial Type Society and the “El Obrero” Mutual Society were established in Ocotepeque, the same manifestation took place in Santa Rosa de Copán with the Copaneca Society of Workers. The first two demonstrations presented here are still valid.
In 1923 the precept was inserted for the first time in the Constitution of the Republic: “It is the function of the State to promote the cooperative association”; in 1927 the Municipalities Law dedicated two articles to it, to the promotion and execution of cooperative societies; In 1936, the Cooperative Societies Law was approved for the sale of merchandise on time with provisions for the regulation and promotion of Cooperative Associations.
Overview
Honduras counts 4 ICA member organisations:
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Sagrada Familia, is a full member in the finance sector.
- Federación de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Crédito, Ltda. (FACACH), is a full member in the finance sector.
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Educadores de Honduras Limitada (COACEHL), is a full member in the finance sector.
- Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito CACEENP Limitada, is a full member in the finance sector.
In Honduras the research questionnaire was distributed to and completed by 2 ICA member organisations. The data collected was for the reference year 2017 and 2019.
Legal framework
Legal Framework Analysis - Honduras.pdf
(189.5 KB)
Legal framework
Informe de Marcos Legales - Honduras.pdf
(171.74 KB)
Legal framework
LFA Highlights - Honduras.pdf
(105.11 KB)
Legal framework
Legal research overview
The legal framework analysis aims to provide general knowledge of the national cooperative legislation and of its main characteristics and contents, with particular regard to those aspects of regulation regarding the identity of cooperatives and its distinction from other types of business organisations, notably the for-profit shareholder corporation.
It aims to evaluate whether the national legislation in place supports or hampers the development of cooperatives, and is therefore “cooperative friendly” or not, and the degree to which it may be considered so, also in comparison to the legislation in force in other countries of the ICA region, or at the supranational level.
In addition, the research aims to provide recommendations for eventual renewal of the legal frameworks in place in order to understand what changes in the current legislation would be necessary to improve its degree of “cooperative friendliness”, which is to say, to make the legislation more favourable to cooperatives, also in consideration of their specific identity. This webpage presents a snapshot of the legal framework analysis results for Honduras.
General overview
The first cooperative regulations in Honduras originated in 1949, specifically Chapter VII of the Commercial Code, in this section the nature of what cooperative societies are was defined, acting under a social name according to the regulations given for the public limited companies, always followed by the words "limited cooperative society" or "supplemented cooperative society" or their respective initials "SCL and SCS", with variable capital and divided into equal shares. The National Congress of Honduras in 1987, promulgated the first Cooperative Law of Honduras, approved by Decree No. 65-87, it is from this law that Honduran cooperativism is regulated autonomously.
Cooperative friendliness
The State guarantees the free development of cooperatives and the autonomy of cooperatives as private entities. Cooperativism constitutes a special sector, with its own personality within the national economy and society, and the Cooperatives Law confers representation in State organizations linked to the national economy and development.
There is no incentive in the Cooperatives Law or other laws to contract with the State, therefore, cooperatives are on equal terms with other bidders.
Key recommendations for improvement
- For proper supervision of cooperatives, they must be segmented according to their size, volume of assets and other conditions.
- You should review the definition of Financial Intermediation of the Savings and Credit Cooperatives
- The creation of regulations for the sector must be made aware of it and not lean towards the regulations applicable to the banking sector.
Conclusions
Although there are no legal barriers for the creation of cooperatives, the training process described in the Law “Seminario de Cooperativismo Básico” is onerous, so it is difficult for cooperatives in formation to cover this cost, this situation that can lead to the constitution of other companies in the social sector of the economy whose requirements do not represent such high costs.
Despite having some tax benefits, the non-profit objective of cooperatives is not fully recognized, as well as the economic-social activities that they carry out in order to provide not only in favor of themselves, consequently, they are forced to comply with tax obligations by the tax administration.
The legal frameworks analysis is a tool developed under the ICA-EU Partnership #coops4dev. It is an overview of the national legal frameworks at the time of writing. The views expressed within are not necessarily those of the ICA, nor does a reference to any specific content constitute an explicit endorsement or recommendation by the ICA.