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2 July 2017: International Day of Cooperatives


The International Day of Cooperatives is a United Nations day celebrated annually on 2 July.

Cooperative businesses are based on ethics, values, and a set of fundamental principles that keep people, rather than profit, at the centre of their aims. Cooperatives can be a self-help tool for people to create their own economic opportunities through the power of the collective and pull themselves out of poverty. They re-invest in the communities in which they operate, securing not only the livelihoods of their members but also increasing the wealth of the community as a whole.

By being sources of decent work, spaces for democracy, peace building, and economic transformational means, cooperatives can be a real force in communities. For example, the top 300 cooperatives alone generate $2.5 trillion in annual turnover, which is more than the GDP of France).

The 2017 International Day of Cooperatives will focus on ‘inclusion’ under the theme ‘Cooperatives ensure no one is left behind’ which complements the priority theme of the 2017 United Nations High-level Political Forum for Sustainable Development: ‘Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world’.

The Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) will host the observance of the 2017 International Day of Cooperatives during the High-level Political Forum. The event will feature speakers from COPAC’s membership, co-operatives in the field, and Permanent Representations to the United Nations.

COPAC is a multi-stakeholder partnership of global public and private institutions that promotes and advances people-centred, self-sustaining cooperative enterprises, guided by the principles of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – in all aspects of its work. The Committee’s current members are the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Co-operative Alliance, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Farmers’ Organisation.



MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


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