Dear cooperative friends,
We are nearing the end of a complex year, where the pandemic continues to affect our lives and the activity of our enterprises.
The unequal distribution of vaccines impacts many countries and allows the virus to strengthen and remain a global threat.
This affects our health and our economies, given the struggles many families face to acquire income as well as the difficulties that exist in obtaining household goods and interrupted supply chains.
Meanwhile, cooperatives continue to demonstrate our resilience, demonstrating that our service to each community and the entire planet our proven track record of almost two centuries.
The business model we embody is the only one capable of recovering the productive and community fabric without leaving anyone behind.
As we said this year when we celebrated our day, we want to Rebuild Better Together this world affected by multiple social, economic, health and environmental challenges.
Despite this difficult scenario, we have advanced our levels of integration and continue to strengthen our Cooperative Identity, as we demonstrated in our historic 33rd World Cooperative Congress.
In 2022, I invite each of the one billion members of three million cooperatives that inhabit each continent to continue working together to drive a just recovery in each territory and on a global scale.
I ask you to continue to take care of ourselves and our communities. I wish you a happy end of the year and the beginning of the new year with your families and friends.
Cheers!
Ariel Guarco
ICA President
