Santosh was born in New Delhi and joined the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific Office (ICA-AP) in 2010, moving to the global office in 2019. This year, he co-ordinated the ICA’s Global Cooperative Conference in India, which included the launch of the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives (IYC).
Tell us about yourself!
I grew up in the centre-west part of Delhi, very close to the government machinery, physically speaking. But I was born in Hyderabad, which is down south. My parents grew up in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and I am ethnically from the west of India. So I have the privilege of having links to several parts of India.
How did you first hear about co-operatives?
I have this memory of going to the so-called super bazaar, and it was a co-op retail supermarket. I think it still exists, but it’s not very famous any more. I remember going there in the early 1990s and asking my mum why we were going to this huge store. And she said: “The prices are better and the quality is guaranteed”, and that was just a natural choice at that time.
Then I remember distinctly reading about cooperatives in school when I was about 14. There were companies, partnership firms, and cooperatives represented as ways of doing business in my civics textbook. I studied law, and my interest and passion lie in public international law. So after working for a law firm for a year, I was desperate to work for an organisation that represented international concerns, brought people together and worked on issues of human rights and peacebuilding. My classfellow, who now leads a large legal-tech firm, informed me about an opening at the ICA-AP, and that I should apply.
That was when I was 22, in 2009 – and coincidentally, the newspapers at that time had coverage of the upcoming 2012 International Year of Cooperatives, sponsored by the government of Mongolia. That was when I learned about the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and discovered there was a wider, bigger movement out there.
I actually failed the interview because I didn’t know much about the ICA or the civil society world and development programmes governments were running. They also said I was very young. I joined the Indian Navy’s think tank, and was very happy there for some time. And then I got a call to say there was another opening at ICA-AP – so I applied and became programme officer and staffed the regional youth committee and assisted ministerial conferences and regional assemblies and coordinated publications on law and policy.
How did you then join the ICA head office in Brussels?
When I saw the first 2012 IYC declaration and the fact that there is a strong legal basis for the ICA to exist as an institution, I did think there would be a time when they would have an opening for legal work, particularly in international law. But the other, more practical, tangible answer to that is that in 2019 they opened the position for legislation coordinator. I didn’t think that an Indian-trained lawyer could apply or have a job outside India. But on the very last day of the deadline I spoke to my regional director, and said: “Look, if I don’t apply here, I won’t be able to sleep well.” He was encouraging, and I applied and got the job.
You were the conference co-ordinator for the 2024 ICA Global Cooperative Conference. What are your reflections on the event?
I have a very different perspective of the conference compared with delegates because I was backstage or up in the console. But what I’m truly pleased with is that there were several ideas we had in February – when we pitched to the board that we wanted to dream big, and to get things done in Delhi that have probably not happened before. That included bringing the prime minister of Bhutan to the stage, releasing a postage stamp, screening the very famous film Manthan (which this year was also screened at the Cannes Film Festival), developing board games, having a fully vegetarian meal and being as carbon neutral as possible.
It was the first real moment where 1,000 cooperators worldwide could come together since Kigali in 2019 – as the 2021 congress in Seoul was a challenging time because of Covid, and Seville in 2022 was an election year. So I’m pleased with the fact that so many ideas we had imagined were actually realised. A lot of that was due to a great conference team that included Martina Poliseno, Nadine Nguz and Daisy Chissaque and, of course, my own ICA colleagues. It was a challenging year – we had a leadership transition, faced financial strains, and a few colleagues transitioned as well, meaning the team got smaller, but all of us stepped up when it mattered. Jeroen [Douglas, ICA director general] displayed great leadership. Colleagues from [Indian fertiliser co-op] Iffco, the National Cooperative Union of India and the ICA-AP delivered beyond our expectations.
It was fantastic to have two prime ministers and a deputy prime minister on stage to launch the International Year of Cooperatives, but I do think we could have done much better in terms of gender inclusivity.
How is the ICA going to use the opportunities of the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives?
There is a plan already that the ICA has worked out with the Committee on Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (Copac), to work with national committees and create an environment where national apex organisations, local governments and national governments can work together with the ICA. Youth is a major focus area, and so is starting to think about the post-2030 sustainable development agenda.
As far as my own work on legislation, we’ll try to start a relationship of sorts with the International Court of Justice, and maybe have a seminar on co-operative law during International Law Week. The World Social Summit will be an important event that will again bring together stakeholders, members and governments on one platform. That platform will be owned by the United Nations, but the ICA, because of the IYC, will play an important role. And finally, the New Delhi Action Agenda launched at the end of the conference includes calls to action for cooperatives and their members during the IYC.
What are the biggest challenges ahead?
Peace. I think peace and children’s education and safety – those two things we have to absolutely prioritise because environmental justice and economic justice both hinge on social justice. And if you can’t go to bed safe and sound and with a full stomach, you can’t think about anything else, or your place in the larger, wider world. So these are the two challenges, peace at the local level, national level and international level, and all its aspects. And everything to do with children.
How do co-ops build a better world?
Co-ops have this set of seven principles, right? And the seventh one, Concern for Community. is such an amazing one, even though it has a very short commentary: that co-operatives work towards the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members. So it marries sustainable development with democracy, and it conveys that the concept of sustainable development doesn’t need to come from the United Nations or any multilateral organisation – from the top, but is something that the general assemblies of primary co-operatives can decide. And that’s how, inch by inch, they build a better world.
