Raise profile of co-operatives within the United Nations
28 Mar 2013
The United Nations has created two opportunities to promote co-operatives.
Both initiatives are backed by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), where co-operatives are encouraged to contribute to the MY World 2015 campaign and a project to map youth co-operatives around the world.
Earlier this year, the UN (led by the United Nations Millennium Campaign) launched MY World where people can share thoughts on the UN’s post-2015 Development Agenda. The tool was created to capture the views of anyone around the world in an open and inclusive process.
MY World asks individuals to vote for six issues, out of a total of 16, which they deem most important for their lives. The 16 issues were created from the priorities expressed by poor people in existing research and polling exercises. In addition to covering the Millennium Development Goals, they include issues of sustainability, security, governance and transparency.
When voting for these issues, individuals can also add their own priorities, and UN DESA encourages co-operators worldwide to add ‘Promoting Cooperatives’ as an additional goal.
In a further initiative to raise the profile of co-operatives, UN DESA has launched a global mapping project to find youth co-operatives.
The UN department that is responsible for co-operatives is seeking help to promote and share the map, plus to add more co-operatives to the map through a special survey.
This survey gathers information from youth co-operatives and co-operatives working for and with youth, identifying who they are, where they are, what they do, and what prospects and challenges they face in delivering employment and entrepreneurship to the youth.
Responses to the survey will feed into a global map and analytical report, which will be available within the coming months.
