Co-operatives are being asked to help build a statistical picture of the entire global movement.
The International Co-operative Alliance has re-launched the second survey for its World Co-operative Monitor in association with research institute Euricse.
An aim of the Monitor is to develop a database reporting on the socio-economic value and impact of co-operatives from their trading area to a global perspective.
Earlier this year, the ICA and Euricse extended its partnership, which includes developing stories.coop into a multi-lingual platform, and collecting data on new indicators for the Monitor, such as employment figures.
Last year’s Monitor revealed the world’s top 300 co-operatives have a turnover of USD 2 trillion, which measured the social impact and turnover of co-operative enterprises.
The 2012 report consisted of 2,192 co-operatives across 61 countries, but the ICA is hoping for a larger take-up with the revised survey.
Charles Gould, Director-General of the ICA, encouraged all co-operatives to take part in the research project: “The World Co-operative Monitor provides a great message for the general public: there is a way to pursue sustainable business and at scale.
“In order to improve the comprehensiveness of the database the contribution of every single co-operative is essential, regardless of their size and turnover.”
The World Co-operative Monitor Steering Committee, composed of internationally recognised researchers and practitioners, will meet at the beginning of May in Jakarta, on a trip hosted by the Indonesian Government’s State Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, to discuss and further validate the methodology and give additional scientific strength to the entire project.
Gianluca Salvatori, CEO of Euricse, added: “The idea behind this project is to define a new process of data collection, integration, and analysis, culminating in the creation of a regularly updated database containing economic data, but also other social dimensions, to monitor and demonstrate not only the economic, but also the social impact of co-operatives worldwide.”
• To participate, visit www.monitor.coop to complete the online questionnaire, which takes less than 30 minutes to finish. The results will be presented at the ICA Global Conference and General Assembly in Cape Town in November.
