International Cooperative Alliance, the apex global body of cooperatives has posted a UN video which depicts that the UN General Assembly has adopted the resolution declaring year 2025 as the second International Year of Co-operatives. The ICA post says that an overwhelming number of countries have supported it.
The first time the UN adopted such a resolution was in 2011 when it decided to make co-operatives a global issue in the year 2012. The year 2012 was thus declared the year of cooperatives for the first time in the history of the United Nations.
In its LinkedIn page, the ICA says “Watch from minute 25 to (re) live how the UN General Assembly has adopted it & the overwhelming number of countries that have supported it!”
The text encourages the member states, the United Nations as well as all other relevant stakeholders to take advantage of the International Year of Cooperatives as a way of promoting cooperatives and raising awareness of their contributions to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and to overall social and economic development.
The resolution further draws governments’ attention to the recommendations of the 2023 UN Secretary General report on cooperatives in social development to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem for cooperatives as sustainable and successful business enterprises.
The Resolution was passed during the Third Committee, 47th plenary meeting – General Assembly, 78th session.
In April this year (2023), the United Nations had adopted the first Resolution on promoting the social and solidarity economy (SSE) for sustainable development. The Resolution was adopted at the UN’s General Assembly on 18 April.
The SSE is defined by the resolution as “enterprises, organisations and other entities engaged in economic, social and environmental activities, which serve the collective and/or general interest.”
It adds that these activities are based on the principles of “voluntary cooperation and mutual aid, democratic and/or participatory governance, autonomy and independence and the primacy of people and social purpose over capital in the distribution and use of surpluses and/or profits”.
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) has been an observer of the UN Task Force on the SSE and, in 2020, published its position paper – Cooperatives as a key constituent of the social and solidarity economy – supporting the UN resolution. The ICA says it welcomes the resolution as an “important step in mainstreaming and enhancing the international dimension and profile of the SSE”.