The international conference ‘Cooperatives for Sustainable Development’ organised by Kooperatiben Kontseilua, KONFEKOOP, COCETA and the ICA will be held on 1 July.
Under the slogan “Cooperatives for Sustainable Development”, cooperatives all over the world will be celebrating their International Day this year on 1st July, an event that has united the cooperative movement for a century and which aims to improve its knowledge and highlight the contributions of the cooperative movement to the economy and society.
On the occasion of Donostia 2023 as the Capital of the Social Economy, the Basque Higher Council of Cooperatives -Kooperatiben Kontseilua- and the Basque Confederation of Cooperatives -KONFEKOOP-, have joined forces with the Spanish Confederation of Worker Cooperatives -COCETA- and the International Cooperative Alliance -ICA- to organise a unique global event on that day, which will be broadcast from Donostia to the whole world.
The International Conference Cooperatives for Sustainable Development will be held on 1 July from 11:00 to 14:00 and will be attended by world leaders of cooperatives, institutional representatives of the central and Basque governments, and cooperative organisations and enterprises from the five continents.
The common thread of the event is the demonstration of how the cooperative formula is the best tool for building a better world. 2023 is a key year for the United Nations 2030 Agenda, as in September the UN will be holding a summit to review the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda, efforts need to be deepened, and this can only be done with more cooperation. Cooperatives have a model for doing this, and have been demonstrating this for years. The cooperative movement is a forerunner of sustainable development, in fact, the term was already part of the cooperative principles (the Seventh) as far back as 1995, 20 years before the UN coined the 2030 Agenda in 2015.
The Basque Country is a world benchmark in cooperativism, with major worker-owned firms, where the people who work are the owners of the company, and because it has a unique public-private organisation in the world which promotes and disseminates it: the Basque Higher Council of Cooperatives.
Moreover, the Basque Country is also a benchmark in sustainability, as it is one of the European regions with the least inequalities and the highest density of cooperatives, thus confirming the maxim: the more cooperatives, the more equality.
17 goals and 6 tables
The conference Cooperatives for Sustainable Development will be divided into 6 blocks, five to identify and work on the 17 SDGs and a complementary one dedicated to youth. Each of these roundtables will be moderated by a prominent person from the cooperative world.
Beforehand, the Mayor of Donostia, Eneko Goia, and the Second Vice-Mayor of the Basque Government and Minister of Labour and Employment, Idoia Mendia, will welcome the participants with videos. The conference will be introduced by Patxi Olabarria, President of the Higher Council of Co-operatives of the Basque Country, Wenyan Yang, President of COPAC, the United Nations Committee for the Promotion of Cooperatives, and Ariel Guarco, President of the ICA.
All the round tables will be attended by Basque cooperatives, who will share their experiences with other international organisations.
At the first round table For the well-being of people, Udapa and Eroski will present their commitments to health, well-being and the end of poverty with an agricultural cooperative from Ukraine and the Argentinian cooperative Creando Conciencia, among others.
The second panel For a fairer world will focus on education and gender equality with the intervention of Xiomara Cespedes, president of the ICA gender committee, and Mirai Chatterjee, president of the federation of women’s co-operatives in India.
For the well-being of communities will be the focus of the third round table, with various participating experiences such as a Finnish cooperative, the Goiener citizens’ cooperative group and the participation of the President of the Mondragon Congress, Leire Muguerza. This round table will be moderated by the President of KONFEKOOP, Rosa Lavín.
Block four will deal with For the well-being of the planet, with representatives from Cameroon, Fiji and the cooperative from Gasteiz, Eraman.
Panel 5, More cooperation for a better world, will focus on public-private collaboration with representatives from the Basque and central governments and will be moderated by the president of Kooperatiben Kontseilua, Patxi Olabarria.
Cooperative youth will round off the participative roundtables, with experiences such as those of the Caja Popular Mexicana and the Basque Bizipoz.
The event will conclude with an assessment by the President of KONFEKOOP, Rosa Lavín, and the President of COCETA, Luis Miguel Jurado. A message from the Vice-President of the Spanish Government, Yolanda Díaz, will bring this intense day to a close.
Possibility to follow in streaming
The event can be followed in streaming, after registration on the website kooperatibenkontseilua.eus. Some of the participants will speak by video due to time differences or scheduling issues.
This International Conference is a confirmation of the contribution that co-operative enterprises make to economic development and the generation of employment with principles of economic, social and environmental sustainability.
Doownload the program: COOPSDAY PROGRAM.
