Survey: Help ensure co-operatives are in the UN's post-2015 development agenda

27 Sep 2013

​Co-operatives have an opportunity to influence the United Nations post-2015 development agenda.

The International Labour Organization’s Co-operatives Unit, in collaboration with the International Co-operative Alliance, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and other partners, has launched an initiative to allow co-operatives to contribute on issues of sustainable development.

The UN launched its current development agenda, centred on the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. By 2015, it had aimed to achieve eight goals in the areas of poverty alleviation, education, gender equality and empowerment of women, child and maternal health, environmental sustainability, reducing HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases, and building a global partnership for development.

At the UN conference on Sustainable Development in 2012, “Rio +20”, the process was started for designing a sustainable development goals which will build upon the MDGs.

As part of the ILO initiative a background study is being drafted to be presented in policy roundtables, conferences and seminars in 2013-14. The study will be informed by a survey and in-depth interviews with representatives of the co-operative movement from around the world to gather information on how co-operatives have contributed to Sustainable Development and their potential to contribute to the achievement of the proposed Universal Goals.

Rio 20+ recognised the actual and potential role of co-operatives to achieving sustainable development, reducing poverty and creating employment. But in May, a High Level Panel appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon published its report on its vision and recommendations for post-2015, which did not have any real emphasis on co-operatives, according to the ILO.

The ILO said that co-operatives are instrumental in providing opportunities for productive employment as well as offering services such as health care, education, credit, improved infrastructure and sustainable energy. It added that co-operative enterprises are guided by values of social dialogue and democracy, and they are often rooted in local communities, making them a sustainable option for achieving development. 

To help the co-operative voice be heard, the ILO has launched a survey on co-operatives and the post-2015 sustainable development framework. The survey is intended to have the movement heard by world leaders during the ongoing discussions around the issue. By providing an input co-operatives will contribute to communicating the critical role the movement plays in achieving sustainable development goals.