This month Dame Pauline Green attended the Cooperative Issues Forum, an event hosted by the Cooperative Development Foundation at the National Press Club in Washington.
In her keynote speech, she talked about the impact of the global financial crisis, which she said had led to people to turn to the co-operative enterprise model.
Referring to the importance of co-operatives in the global economy, she said: “A billion people joined the Co-operative Movement because of all the things it does for them, their families, their aspirations their hopes for the future”.
Dame Pauline also introduced US co-operators to the role of the International Co-operative Alliance, which she said was to help grow the co-operative family of businesses around the world.
Those taking part in the Forum learned about two important initiatives of the Alliance: the Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade and the global co-operative marque, which all co-ops can apply to use.
“The more we can build co-ops in the real economy, the greater our success going forward,” said Dame Pauline in her concluding remarks.
Watch the whole speech here.
