International Day of Cooperatives 2022
1 July 2022
The International Day of Cooperatives is an annual celebration recognized by the United Nations that since 1923 takes place on the first Saturday of July. This year’s theme is “Cooperatives Build a Better World”.
The 100th edition of the International Day of Cooperatives is taking place this Saturday, on the 2nd of July – an occasion for the cooperative movement to get together and celebrate their very own cooperatives!
The celebration of this year will mark the 100th edition of Coops Day, and the 28th edition recognized officially by the United Nations as an International Day. It also marks a decade from the International Year of Cooperatives in 2012.
This year, the theme is “Cooperatives Build a Better World.” In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and other conflicts around the world, we are experiencing a handful of challenges in Europe and globally, thus we need to work particularly hard at building and rebuilding our economies and communities.
A valuable contribution is given by cooperatives which, by definition, are human-centered businesses, with worker-members and communities at their core, and keeping paramount values such as democracy, social responsibility, and caring for others.
The cooperatives in our network have been leading for years at the inclusive and innovative green transition, caring about the environment, and overall building a better world for the planet and for humanity.
“Over the years our worker and social cooperatives – employing 4 million persons across the world – have consistently built a better world through creating quality jobs, empowering disadvantaged groups of the population, and providing affordable, much needed goods and services,” declared President Iñigo Albizuri.
Building a better world is not easy, yet, cooperatives always strive for togetherness, unity in times of difficulty, solidarity, and peace.
Over the last year, the role of cooperatives and other social economy entities has been increasingly acknowledged by policymakers globally, including the ILO and the OECD. We call for this global recognition to be accompanied by strong practical support for cooperatives worldwide.
We invite all the worker cooperatives and social cooperatives in our membership to celebrate!
We wish you all a very happy International Day of Cooperatives!
Take a look at the video message from President Iñigo Albizuri.
Find more information in the Coops Day official website, and International Cooperative Alliance website.