Cooperatives

 Erbin Crowell, Green Energy Times -  On June 19, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives, highlighting the contribution of co-ops, credit unions, and mutuals to a more fair, inclusive, and sustainable future...

In fact, the co-operative movement has a long history of partnership with the UN, which was founded in 1945 in the wake of the devastation of two world wars with the core purpose of preventing future conflicts by facilitating collaboration among member states, strengthening human rights, and promoting economic development. The next year, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) was one of the first organizations granted consultative status with the UN, making the movement a key partner in these efforts.

Since then, the relationship between these organizations has continued to grow, including the establishment of the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) in 1971; the adoption of International Co-ops Day (annually on the first Saturday in July) in 1995; and the International Labor Organization’s Recommendation 193 that formally inscribed co-operatives into international law in 2002.

However, the first International Year of Cooperatives in 2012 was a watershed moment for the partnership. A decade earlier in 2000, the UN had approved the Millennium Declaration, committing world leaders to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.” The campaign included eight Millenium Development Goals focused on combatting hunger, inequality, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. With the target date of 2015 fast approaching, the Year was a call to action to increase public awareness about co-operatives and their contributions to this ambitious effort and to promote the model as a tool for enabling people to address common needs.

In its final report on the Millenium Declaration, then UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon wrote that “the global mobilization behind the Goals has produced the most successful anti-poverty movement in history,” and “helped to lift more than one billion people out of extreme poverty, to make inroads against hunger, to enable more girls to attend school than ever before and to protect our planet.” Still, it was recognized that there was progress to be made, particularly in the areas of inequality and environmental sustainability, and the UN was determined to keep up the momentum.

The result was the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a plan of action for “people, planet and prosperity” that builds on the success of the Millenium Goals to include 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), tackling everything from hunger and poverty to gender equality, responsible production and consumption to climate action, and decent work to democratic institutions.

Again, co-ops are seen as central to the success of this ambitious effort, and with five years left to make progress, the UN declared 2025 the second International Year of Co-operatives. Under the simple theme, “Co-operatives Build a Better World,” the celebration highlights the resilience and enduring impact of co-ops and credit unions, identifying them as key solutions to our challenges and drivers of sustainable, inclusive economic growth. The campaign also calls on legislators and governments to create policies that support the growth of co-operatives and recognize their unique nature as democratic enterprises that are controlled by the people who use them to the meet their shared needs and aspirations, rather than capital investors