The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) has started engaging with the United Nations on a roadmap for next year’s International Year of Cooperatives.
As part of this, ICA director-general Jeroen Douglas and director of policy Joseph Njuguna met with UN representatives at the organisation’s New York HQ on 29-30 January.
During their visit, Douglas and Njuguna met with the chief of the Social Perspective on Development Branch, Wenyan Yang, the coordinator of co-operative issues at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Undesa), Andrew Allimadi; and counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the UN, Ulziibaaya Vangasuren, who will work collaboratively to plan the events for next year.
They proposed launching the year during the ICA Global Conference scheduled for 25-30 November 2024.
Related: UN resolution calls for a second International Year of Cooperatives in 2025
Conversations explored potential priority objectives, themes and slogans for the year. While the year’s theme, logo and timeline will be set by the UN, the ICA will remain in contact during this process.
In December, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on co-operatives in social development which called for the proclamation of another International Year of Cooperatives in 2025.
The text encourages the UN, its member states and all other relevant stakeholders to take advantage of the International Year of Cooperatives as a way of promoting co-ops and raising awareness of their contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the overall social and economic development.
It also suggests that governments pay attention to the 2023 UN secretary-general report on co-operatives in social development to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem for co-operatives as sustainable and successful business enterprises.
