B20 final documents highlight the contribution of co-operatives

The B20 Summit in China concluded with the adoption of a set of policy recommendations that mention co-operatives.

A business-oriented forum, the B20 Summit brings together business leaders from across the Group of 20 member countries. Throughout the year, representatives from global industrial and commercial enterprises, including co-operatives, met to discuss policy recommendations for the annual meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) leaders from the world’s major economies.

The purpose of B20 China was to identify a set of clear, actionable recommendations to drive global economic growth. Five taskforces focused on: financing growth; trade and investment; infrastructure; SME development; and employment.

In a policy recommendation to the main B20 group in China, the employment task force said governments should encourage innovators to use the co-op model.

“Forming a co-operative allows costs and risks to be mutualized across all stakeholders, providing the ability for innovators and entrepreneurs to scale quickly and overcome the burdens associated with the transition to an SME [small and medium-sized enterprise],” reads the document.

The final policy paper of the Financing Growth taskforce also contains a specific point on leveraging mutual insurance and micro insurance to protect less privileged people. It highlights the role of mutuals and includes a case study of the 5-5-5 strategy of the International Co-operative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF), which aims to provide insurance coverage for 5 million people in five different countries.

The International Co-operative Alliance was represented for the first time at a B20 meeting in 2014. Since then, co-operative delegates have continued to participate in the B20 meetings, which take place throughout the year, to make the case for co-operatives.