Cecosesola (Central de Cooperativas de Lara) is a network of community organisations from low-income areas that produces and provides affordable goods and services to more than 100,000 families across seven Venezuelan states.

Guided by a process of cultural transformation, the network has vastly expanded over the last 55 years to include cooperative funeral services, food markets, a health network, savings and loans services, as well as agricultural production and small processing plants. Cecosesola’s economic activities are almost entirely self-financed and are offered well below retail prices.

Cecosesola is a beacon that inspires those that are looking for a different way to approach economic activities, transcending the traditional hierarchical model present in private and governmental enterprises. The organisation centres on learning, through collective reflection, about the relationships that emerge in the workplace and its surroundings, guided by transparency, mutual support and equity.

Cecosesola has routinely evolved its ways of working to best address the problems oppressing Venezuelan society, including food shortages, hyperinflation, massive migration and financial crises. Today, Cecosesola maintains a flat organisation where all voices are valued equally, and decisions are made in the collective.