MEDIA RELEASE
International Co-operative Alliance joins UN Global Compact
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Brussels, 10 June 2014 – The International Co-operative Alliance has joined the world’s largest voluntary CSR initiative – the UN Global Compact. This is a strategic policy initiative for businesses committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles relating to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
Co-operative enterprises as values-based and people-centred businesses are, by their very nature, underpinned by social responsibility and have therefore always been committed to integrating ethical principles into their operations.
Rodrigo Gouveia, Director of Policy of the Alliance said: “Human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption are all areas in which the Alliance’s members have a long record of good practices and as such, the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles resonate clearly with the values and principles of the co-operative movement. We look forward to providing a valuable input to the UN and other businesses.”
As part of its engagement, the Alliance will support the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact with respect to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, advance these principles within its sphere of influence, and make a clear statement of this commitment to its members and the general public, as well as taking part in the activities of the UN Global Compact.
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For further information contact:
Jan Schiettecatte
Communications Director
International Co-operative Alliance
Tel: + 32 2 285 00 76
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
About the Alliance:
The International Co-operative Alliance is a non-profit international association established in 1895 to advance the co-operative social enterprise model. The Alliance is the apex organisation for co-operatives worldwide, representing 268 co-operative federations and organisations across 93 countries (figures of May 2014). The Alliance’s members are national level co-operative federations and individual co-operative organisations.
The International Co-operative Alliance works with global and regional governments and organisations to create the legislative environments that allow co-operatives to form and grow. Towards media and public, the Alliance promotes the importance of co-operatives’ values-based business model.
Yearly, the Alliance publishes the World Co-operative Monitor, the index of the world's largest co-operative and mutual enterprises. The Monitor demonstrates the economic impact of co-operative enterprises worldwide. The 2013 Monitor revealed a total worth of USD $ 2 trillion for the world’s top 300 co-operative and mutual organisations, spread across 23 countries.
Operating from a global office in Brussels, Belgium, the Alliance is organised with four Regional Offices (Europe, Africa, Americas, and Asia-Pacific), and eight Sectoral Organisations (Banking, Agriculture, Fisheries, Insurance, Health, Housing, Consumer Co-operatives, and Worker Co-operatives).
Further information about the Alliance’s Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade is available at www.ica.coop. Follow the Alliance on twitter at @icacoop. Like the Alliance's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/internationalcooperativealliance
About the UN Global Compact:
The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary driver of globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.
The UN Global Compact works toward the vision of a sustainable and inclusive global economy, which delivers lasting benefits to people, communities, and markets. To help realize this vision, the initiative seeks to:
Mainstream the Global Compact’s Ten Principles in business strategy and operations around the world; and
Catalyze business action in support of UN goals and issues, with emphasis on collaboration and collective action.
For more information: http://www.unglobalcompact.org
The Ten Principles can be found here: www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciple
