UN Secretary-General hails co-operative business model

07 July 2015

Marking the International Day of Co-operatives Cooperatives, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said cooperatives will play an “invaluable role” in the international community’s roll-out of a sustainable development goals, and appealed for all to recommit to the business model, which could help make the vision of a sustainable future a reality for everyone.

“Inequality is a fundamental obstacle to development, depriving people of basic services and opportunities to build better lives for themselves and their children,” the Secretary-General declared in his message for the day.

“The cooperative model helps meet this challenge. Cooperatives strive to uphold the principles of equality and democratic participation. This business model, built on inclusion and sustainability, offers a pathway toward economic, social and political justice for all,” stated Mr Ban

In 2008 alone, in the midst of the global financial crisis, the largest 300 cooperatives in the world had an aggregate turnover of $1.1 trillion, comparable to the gross domestic product (GDP) of many large economies.

In his message, the Secretary-General pointed to a wealth of research showing how cooperatives have helped lower wage difference between men and women and promote greater equality in the work place and training opportunities.

With an estimated one in every six people in the world either a member or client of a cooperative and some 2.6 million cooperatives employing 12.6 million people globally, the potential contribution to sustainable development is “enormous,” he added.

According to Cooperatives and Sustainable Development Goals, a recently-produced study by the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), cooperatives contribute to sustainable development and hold the potential to do much more: from creating employment and enhancing gender equality to providing clean energy and financial inclusion to ensuring food security and extending social protection.