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Message from the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives
Message from the International Co-operative Alliance (pdf)
Message from the International Federation of Agricultural Producers
Message of the United Nations Secretary-General
Press Kit Prepared by the International Co-operative Alliance
UN Celebrates 2nd International Day of Coops, 1 July 1996
Message from the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives
on the occasion of the 2nd UN International Day of Cooperative
True and independent cooperatives are people's organizations which empower their members. They are found in all sectors of economic activity constituting a significant economic and social force in many countries around the world. Cooperatives are enterprises which are committed to improving the economic, social and environmental situation of their members and the communities in which they operate. It is for this reason that the cooperative movement is a logical partner for implementing the commitments made at the World Summit for Social Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women, Habitat II, and will be important in achieving the goals of the upcoming World Food Summit.
COPAC - the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives - is an example of a successful and on-going partnership between representatives of the cooperative movement together with farmers' and workers' organizations (representing a combined membership of over 1 billion people in 130 countries), and the United Nations and its agencies. Its founding organizations realized that regular meetings where UN and civil society organizations could freely exchange information and discuss issues of common interest would lead to joint collaboration to reach their mutual aim of improving the lives of people today and ensuring better lives for the future.
Today, the members of COPAC - the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), the International Labour Office (ILO), the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), and the United Nations (UN) - work together on equal terms to promote sustainable cooperative development through policy dialogues, exchange of technical information and through concrete and practical collaborative activities.
On this second International Day of Cooperatives, we urge the UN to look to COPAC as a model of how institutions of civil society can work together with UN agencies. After 25 years of collaborative activity, we feel that COPAC constitutes a valuable base on which new partnerships can be initiated and existing partnerships strengthened. We look forward to being an integral part of the process of establishing consultative mechanisms which will enable the commitments made in Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and those to be made in Rome in November 1996 to be fulfilled.
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Comments or questions? Contact the COPAC Coordinator.
Updated: 18 December 2006