How was the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives for you and your organisation?
The National Federation of State Cooperative Banks (NAFSCOB) actively participated in IYC activities in 2012, and the IYC 2025 was another opportunity for us to highlight the contribution of co-operatives to socio-economic development, particularly their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration. Taking into account the theme ‘Building a Better World’, we aimed to create and raise awareness, promote growth to advocate for supportive frameworks, and inspire leadership.
We were extremely proud to participate in the ICA Global Cooperative Conference 2024 in New Delhi, India, where the IYC was launched, and we reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to the ICA Statement on the Cooperative Identity, constituted by the definition, values, and principles, and to strengthening the co-operative movement worldwide. NAFSCOB in close contact with the ICBA, resolved to act decisively on the commitments outlined at the launch to leverage IYC2025 as a transformative opportunity for the co-operative movement to strengthen the cooperative movement worldwide.
NAFSCOB published a record of its activities and achievements during IYC 2025 in the form of a booklet, which included, for example, hosting events and working with India’s Ministry of Cooperation to invite articles on important themes to be published in monthly and quarterly magazines. The year prompted NAFSCOB to address issues such as empowerment and best practices, create and databank, contribute to national co-operative policy, and work on networking and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
What are your hopes for 2026?
We visualise an excellent positive development in all sectors of the co-operative movement and hold high hopes. The UN declared 2025 as the IYC at an appropriate time, and allowed all the co-operative organisations to disseminate key objectives while also commencing work towards the execution of these objectives – including nurturing leadership and facilitating governments to promote the activities to help to build a better world through legislation and reforms. We hope governments will continue to work to promote and strengthen co-operatives in 2026 and beyond, to ensure the execution of co-operative principles, values, ethics and also the co-operative identity.
The year 2026 will facilitate carrying the IYC legacy forward through actions such as deepening policy and legislative reforms; scaling co-operative financial institutions (CFIs); strengthening global co-operative partnerships; positioning co-operatives as key actors in SDGs (2026–2030 window); youth and women leadership in co-operatives; digital and technological transformation; climate action and resilience; measuring co-operative impact through metrics; long-term institutional strengthening; and preparing for a possible ‘Decade of Cooperative Development’ (2025– 2035), giving long-term strategic visibility.
In the year 2026 we will also initiate measures to encourage the adoption of digital governance systems, data-driven decision-making, AI-supported financial inclusion and blockchain for transparency in co-operative finance and supply chains.
