By Rodrigo Gouveia
This year’s International Day of Co-operatives was marked at the United Nations Headquarters in New York with a conference under the topic “Co-operative enterprises achieve sustainable development for all.”
The event served to illustrate why and how co-operatives are a well-suited model of business to deliver the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and was well attended by several Member States, UN agencies and departments, co-operative organisations and other civil society organisations.
The common message from all the participants was that of strong support for the co-operative business model and a call to the UN to recognise and include co-operatives in the Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 Development Agenda.
H.E. Ambassador Och Od from Mongolia recalled the extraordinary work that had been done during the International Year of Co-operatives in 2012 and called for the global institutions to uphold the conclusions of the year and continue to further promote co-operatives.
In his message, the Secretary-General of the UN, Mr Ban Ki-moon, said that this year’s Day falls at a “critical time” with the UN working to reach the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and to adopt a long-range sustainable development agenda, as well as a new climate agreement. “Co-operatives are particularly important to agriculture, food security and rural development. In the finance sector, co-operatives serve more than 857 million people, including tens of millions who live in poverty,” Mr. Ban said.
The International Co-operative Alliance reinforced these ideas by explaining the specific nature and characteristics of co-operatives and Michael Beall, CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association in the US and Ed Potter, Executive Director of ICMIF Americas, followed by illustrating with concrete examples how co-operatives can deliver sustainability on the ground.
