St. Kitts & Nevis
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St. Kitts & Nevis
St. Kitts & Nevis - Key Figures Report.pdf
(227.16 KB)
Key figures
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 St. Kitts and nevis, the data is collected for the reference year 2017.
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 St. Kitts and Nevis. For more information and the full research results, you can download the report by clicking on the links above.
History
The information on the history of cooperativism in Haiti is quite limited, both in English and Spanish; however, the ICA Cooperative Legal Framework Analysis mentions that Cooperatives and Credit Unions within the jurisdiction of St. Kitts and Nevis are governed by a single piece of legislation, that is, the Cooperative Societies Act of 2011. This Legislation is part of the internal landscape of the territory and determines the registration, supervision, governance, operation and management of Cooperative Societies, including Credit Unions, whose members have a common bond of philosophy and socio-economic objectives. The Law had specific determinations for Specialized Cooperative Societies, namely: Credit Unions, Consumer Cooperative Societies and Housing Cooperative Societies, Industrial Cooperative Societies and Apex Bodies with separate levels of restrictions, limitations, parameters, operating rules.
Overview
St. Kitts and Nevis counts 1 ICA member organisation:
- Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions (CCCU), is an associate member as a regional Apex.
In St. Kitts and Nevis the research questionnaire was distributed to and completed by 1 ICA member organisation. The data collected was for the reference year 2017.
Legal framework
Legal framework
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 St. Kitts & Nevis.
General overview
Co-operatives and Credit Unions within the jurisdiction of Saint Christopher and Nevis are governed under one legislation, that is to say, the Co-operative Societies Act, 2011. This legislation forms part of the domestic landscape of the territory and provides for the registration, supervision, governance, operation and management of Co-operative Societies including Credit Unions, the members of which have a common bond of philosophy and socio-economic objectives.
Cooperative Friendliness
From enquiries made, there are no precise legal obstacles or barriers (deriving from a cooperative specific regulation or any other source of law including tax law, public procurement law etc.) to the development of Co-operatives within the jurisdiction.
Key recommendations for improvement
- There should be an expressed recognition of the cooperative difference, its diverse services and objective differences from that of for-profit companies, within the CSA.
- By way of policy intervention, there should be mandatory training and performance evaluation of officers and leaders of Producer Co-operatives.
- Recognition of Co-operatives as not subject to the income tax instead of exempt, since this treatment only implies a legal concession.
- By way of a Policy and Advocacy Strategy, to ensure that Co-operative education is included in the curriculum at all levels within the education system.
Conclusions
The devising of the report has coincided with the parliament process of the yearly budget law of the national public administration which includes disturbing dispositions related to the taxation of cooperatives, which highlights the importance of relying on these investigation dispositions related to the taxation of cooperatives.
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.