Cooperative Social Balance – A Success Story in Honduras

Cooperative Social Balance

It can be seen that many of DGRV´s tools have already been successfully applied in Honduras and are also being used with a positive response.
The tool that has been most successful in Honduras is the “Cooperative Social Balance”. It is a management tool that compiles quantitative and qualitative results of compliance with cooperative social responsibility. This way it’s possible to evaluate its economic-financial performance during a given period, as for example in the analysis and monitoring of areas for improvement according to cooperative principles. In this way, it becomes a diagnosis that makes visible the social actions in an integral manner, showing also what is inherent to the cooperative work and is part of the social responsibility.
The Cooperative Social Balance evaluates a total of 63 indicators based on international standards that have been adapted and adjusted to the realities of different countries and sectors.
At the end, a report is prepared in the form of a social balance sheet. Each indicator is measured in order to assess whether it meets international standards. A methodologically pre-established range is applied to the result to obtain a parameter that includes three levels:

green – satisfactory, yellow – fair, red – insufficient.

Success Figures and Future Perspectives

Out of a total of 85 savings and credit cooperatives affiliated to FACACH, Cooperative Social Balance has been implemented in 52 by the end of 2020. We have also successfully introduced the tool in our FACACH counterpart. Based on this large number of cooperatives already using the tool, it can be seen that Cooperative Social Balance is a success story in Honduras.
The aim is now to implement the tool in the remaining cooperatives before the end of the project phase in 2022, thus introducing the Cooperative Social Balance Sheet in a generalized manner in our counterpart FACACH and in the affiliated savings and credit cooperatives. In addition, our counterpart CONSUCOOP, the National Supervisory Council of Cooperatives also addresses the issue of the Cooperative Social Balance Sheet and integrates it as a standard.
In the end, the tool is developed and improved collectively, with the participation of our partners at different levels. Of course, the other DGRV tools (SEC, SPE, SPF, MicroScore) will continue to be applied in Honduras. We hope to be able to continue to create this Cooperative Social Balance success story with other tools as well.