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Cooperatives Build a Better World
Text based on the press release of the International Cooperative Alliance
July 2, today cooperatives all around the world celebrate the 100th International Day of Cooperatives (#CoopsDay). A decade on from the UN International Year of Cooperatives, which showcased the unique contribution of cooperatives to making the world a better place, this year’s #CoopsDay slogan --“Cooperatives Build a Better World”-- echoes the theme of the International Year.
“Cooperatives are answering the wake-up call of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who warned that the world is ‘on the edge of an abyss — and moving in the wrong direction’, and exclaimed that ‘to restore trust, and inspire hope, we need cooperation, we need dialogue, we need understanding’. For nearly two centuries, cooperatives have been pulling in this direction. This was amply highlighted at the 33rd World Cooperative Congress, held by the International Cooperative Alliance in December 2021, which focused a spotlight on how their shared identity is moving cooperatives to take action to address the world’s problems” declared Bruno Roelants, Director General of the ICA.
The human-centred business model, inspired by the cooperative values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity and the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others, is building a better world.
Operating all around the world, in many different sectors of economy, cooperatives have proven themselves more resilient to crises than the average. They foster economic participation, fight against environmental degradation and climate change, generate good jobs, contribute to food security, keep financial capital within local communities, build ethical value chains, and, by improving people’s material conditions and security, contribute to positive peace.
“Cooperatives are the only enterprise model with globally agreed principles that rest on a foundation of shared ethical values” added Bruno Roelants.
Renewable energy cooperatives celebrate #CoopsDay
Together with many other cooperators and partners around the world, REScoop.eu, the European federation of citizen energy cooperatives is celebrating #CoopsDay today. Also in the energy sector, Cooperatives Build a Better World.
Environmental, economic and social sustainability is the only way forward for the European economy. Within the cooperative movement, the environmental awareness and actions are ever growing, making our business model fit for a green, just and resilient transition. Cooperative enterprises thus play an important role in delivering economic, environmental and social value for the communities and the local economies in which they operate.
Energy cooperatives are driving a clean and democratic energy transition and it is the seven cooperative principles that makes them different from the big commercial players.
This video explains these principles and showcase how energy cooperatives around Europe are living those values.
About the International Day of Cooperatives
Marked by cooperatives worldwide since 1923 and officially proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on the centenary of the ICA in 1995, the International Day of Cooperatives is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July.
The aim of #CoopsDay is to increase awareness of cooperatives and promote the movement's ideas of international solidarity, economic efficiency, equality, and world peace. Since 1995, the ICA and the United Nations through Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) have jointly set the theme for the celebration of #CoopsDay.
Through #CoopsDay, local, national and global policymakers, civil-society organisations and the public in general can learn about the contribution of cooperatives to a secure future for all.