Co-operatives ENSURE THAT NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND
95TH INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE DAY
23RD UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CO-OPERATIVES
1 JULY 2017
At a time when income inequality is rising around the world, it is good
to remember that solutions for inequality exist. The co-operative model
is foremost among these. Its internationally agreed definition,
principles and values set it apart from all other forms of
entrepreneurial organisations. Those principles state that membership in
a co-operative is open without discrimination to all people who accept
the requirements of membership.
That open membership affords
access to wealth creation and poverty elimination. This results from the
co-operative principle on member economic participation: 'Members
contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of
their co-operative'. Because co-operatives are people-centred, not
capital-centred, they do not perpetuate nor accelerate capital
concentration and they distribute wealth in a more fair way.
The
open access that co-operatives provide extends across all business
sectors -- savings and credit facilities, farming and fisheries,
purchase of goods and services, health care, housing, insurance,
provision of artisinal and industrial services -- wherever the
capital-based market fails to look after the needs of the people and
they choose to organise themselves.
Beyond the non-discriminatory
structure of the co-operative itself, co-operatives also foster
external equality, through principle seven, 'Concern for Community'. As
they are community-based, they are committed to the sustainable
development of their communities - environmentally, socially and
economically. This commitment evidences itself across the world in
co-operative support for community activities, in local sourcing of
supplies to benefit the local economy, and in decision-making that
considers the impact on their communities.
Despite their local
community focus, co-operatives also aspire to bring the benefits of
their economic and social model to all people in the world.
Globalization should be done through a set of values such as those of
the co-operative movement; otherwise, it creates more inequality and
excesses that render it unsustainable, as we have seen.
Co-operatives achieve results not as charities, but as entrepreneurial
self-help organisations. This has allowed them to grow to scale, through
community-based federated structures and by offering increasingly
varied services in response to member needs. The World Co-operative
Monitor reports that the 300 largest co-operatives alone account for
over USD 2.5 trillion annual turnover. Over 250 million people organise
their livelihood through a co-operative. This is wealth creation and
distribution at a high impact level. The question of scalability of
co-operatives was resoundingly answered in the affirmative long ago.
This impact is one of the reasons that UNESCO (the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) recently added
co-operatives to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of
humanity. UNESCO established the list in 2003 to acknowledge that the
human experience is not defined only by tangible places and monuments,
but equally by practices and traditions. A member-state must make such a
nomination, and Germany made the case for co-operative recognition,
noting that co-operatives 'strive for a more just development of
globalization processes'.
It is important to note that it is not
only income inequality that plagues the world. Women in particular and
minority groups often find themselves denied access to important
activities essential to improving their living situation. The
nondiscrimination defined in the co-operative principles is
multi-dimensional: gender, social, racial, political and religious,
ensuring that no-one is left behind.
On this International Day of
Co-operatives, the International Co-operative Alliance calls on
co-operatives across the world to reflect on the misery caused by rising
inequality, to recommit to ensuring equality across their communities,
and to celebrate the co-operative contribution to making the world a
better place. The platform ‘Coops for 2030’ (
www.coopsfor2030.coop)
offers the possibility for co-operatives to pledge initiatives towards
the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the
International Co-operative Alliance encourages all co-operatives to do
so
Source: http://ica.coop/en/media/news/95th-international-co-operative-day
