The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/80/182 last 15 December, recognising the role of cooperatives in promoting inclusive economic and social development worldwide. It also proclaims the celebration of an International Year of Cooperatives every ten years, following the one held in 2025. The resolution was approved by 179 countries of the UN Assembly, with only three countries voting against it: Argentina, Israel and the USA.
The resolution, now published, acknowledges the success of the International Years of Cooperatives in 2012 and 2025, and highlights the role of cooperatives, in their various forms, as a means of promoting the “fullest possible participation in the economic and social development of local communities and all people”.
The text highlights the specific contributions of cooperatives to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular to the eradication of poverty and hunger, social inclusion, gender equality, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
In its conclusions, the resolution encourages Governments to provide specific budgetary support to increase the capacity of cooperatives, promote them and include them in sectoral strategies, such as those related to agriculture, health, education and employment.
It also encourages Governments to intensify and expand the availability, accessibility and dissemination of evidence-based research on the functioning and contribution of cooperatives; to develop a statistical framework for the systematic collection of comprehensive and disaggregated data on cooperative enterprises and their best practices, taking into account available methodologies, such as the guidelines on statistics on cooperatives, in collaboration with all stakeholders.
Such statistical and research work should be aimed at raising public awareness of the links between cooperatives and sustainable development, especially in the areas of social inclusion, the creation of decent work, the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, the reduction of inequalities, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and peacebuilding.
Renewed optimism
The President of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), Ariel Guarco, has expressed his satisfaction with this new UN resolution. As he recalls, “in times of crisis, inequality and global distrust, cooperatives demonstrate that it is possible to produce and distribute wealth without exclusion, care for the environment and strengthen social ties”. Guarco also states that the declaration of an International Year of Cooperatives every decade “gives our movement renewed optimism #Beyond2025”.
UN support for Cooperativism
The UN has long recognised the cooperative movement as a key partner in enhancing social development, and more recently in achieving the SDGs. The UN General Assembly has been adopting resolutions related to cooperatives since the 1950s, and systematically every two years since 1992.
In addition, in April 2023 the UN adopted the first historic resolution on the promotion of the social and solidarity economy for sustainable development, which provides a global concept of the social and solidarity economy and establishes the range of public policies to be deployed within the framework of a policy to promote the social economy.
