At the end of each year, we ask co-op and mutual leaders from around the world to reflect on their organisation and sector – and this year, on the UN International Year of Cooperatives theme: Co-ops Build a Better World. Read the December 2024 Q&As here.
How do co-ops build a better world?
Catering to members’ needs intrinsically means addressing the needs of their local communities. As such, co-ops work to improve people’s awareness of pressing societal challenges and use their capacity to alleviate them.
Fostering food safety and security, improving food availability and affordability, lowering poverty and hunger, driving social inclusion, reinforcing training and education, climate action, gender equality, producer and consumer empowerment are only some of the direct results which co-ops achieve because of their distinctiveness. These build a better world. A stronger and healthier world.
This is possible because co-ops generate income in a responsible and sustainable manner and then utilise the profits for purposes that benefit society – locally or globally. They do so not out of marketing necessity, but out of principled and ethical convictions. The economic model was invented to counterbalance the enterprise model predominantly focused on capital generation, but which also comes with environmental and social failures. Thanks to direct member control, for 180 years, co-ops succeed where other models struggle or fail – reconciling economic viability with economic and social responsibility.
By doing so, co-ops incur expenditures which a capital-focused enterprise would limit if seen as unprofitable. Co-ops operate in communities regardless of the profitability. Co-ops prioritise environmental performance beyond legal obligations. Co-ops uplift communities in need, because co-ops are extensions of local communities. They are part of the social fabric.
What should the International Year of Cooperatives achieve – and how is your organisation working toward that?
It is an incredible opportunity for achieving two main strategic priorities: 1) to galvanise co-operatives worldwide under a shared call to action and 2) work with policymakers to ensure an enabling regulatory and policy framework.
The first entails celebrating our distinctiveness and success in building a better world, but also to spark greater collaboration on a national and international level. There is massive untapped potential in operationalising Principle six and everyone stands to benefit from this.
Coming together to recognise the power of co-operation and then co-operating with each other to a greater degree shall give us fuel to engage policymakers around common issues. Be it climate change or social inclusion or coupling economic growth with environmental and social responsibility, we are one movement with one voice and one purpose – build a better world.
Euro Coop will use the IYC 2025 to utilise our members’ innovation to underpin our policy messages towards the EU institutions about the importance of policy coherence and legislation which must not burden the co-op enterprises. Policymakers must understand that any regulatory hurdles are a missed opportunity for co-operatives to maximise their contribution to a stronger society and to a better world.
