IFFCO organized a webinar on “Engagement of Cooperatives in the G20″ on Monday in collaboration with International Cooperative Alliance-Asia and Pacific in which India’s Sherpa to the G20 and former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu was the chief guest.
Beside Prabhu, IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi, ICA-AP Regional Director Balu Iyer – the moderator of the webinar, Ms Melina Morrison, CEO, Australia based Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) and Jean Louis Bancel from France were present on the occasion.
The key planner of the webinar was IFFCO’s Joint General Manager (Cooperative Relations) Tarun Bhargava who is also Chairperson of International Cooperative Entrepreneurship Think Tank (ICETT). Bhargava who coordinated the event was working on the idea of the Webinar for the last 3-4 months.
Calling it a huge success, Bharagva informed that more than 450 participants watched the live streaming on YouTube and scores were connected through Zoom.
Addressing the participants, former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said, “The knowledge of cooperatives of what is happening on the ground is unparalleled. In India cooperatives are present virtually in all the villages of India.
Prabhu further said, “The World is witnessing a huge liquidity flowing into the global market because each of the national governments has poured in trillions of dollars to save their economies due to the covid-19 pandemic. Cooperatives can play an important role in mobilizing resources and channelizing them in an equitable way to the credit needy countries and in socio-economic improvement, he added.
In his speech, IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi said, “The G-20 platform will provide immense opportunity to contribute and collaborate globally with the cooperatives especially for India. Co-ops are people organizations, they are not based on the principle of profit but based on the principle of giving service”.
Discussing IFFCO’s role towards sustainable agriculture Awasthi referred to organic fertilizer and Nano fertilizers. He said that in considering the GDP, we should not just look at the economic, but also the social and environmental dimension. Awasthi said that the G20 Platform provides immense opportunities to contribute and collaborate with global players.
On the occasion, the international participant Melina Morrison made a presentation on Australia and G-20 and informed that their organization participated in a task force that developed policy recommendations for the G-20.
Jean Louis Bancel, President of Cooperatives Europe who has worked in different taskforces said that cooperatives need to understand the interest of the G20 leaders’ agenda align their own interests in SDGs, climate action and social justice.
Balasubramanian Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP moderated the discussion and explained how the Asia-Pacific is well represented in the G20, with seven countries members – Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and Saudi Arabia.