Welcome to the International Year of Co-operatives – Co-operative News

January 1st is the beginning of a year-long schedule of activities to raise the profile of co-operatives during the United Nations' International Year of Co-operatives. Across the world,...

January 1st is the beginning of a year-long schedule of activities to raise the profile of co-operatives during the United Nations’ International Year of Co-operatives.

Across the world, co-operators and co-operatives will come together to celebrate the Co-operative Movement’s year with hundreds of activities planned to promote the co-operative voice.

Many of these people and organisations have spoken to Co-operative News, the Global News Hub, to tell readers about their plans for 2012, which are all listed on our special mini-site along with an interactive map. The International Co-operative Alliance has also shared a number of messages from its board members across the world published in its eDigest newsletter.

The ICA’s Director General Chuck Gould outlines the global body’s ambitions to turn this year into the start of a co-operative decade, “with the goal of the co-operative being the fastest-growing model of enterprise by 2020”.

In the United States, Paul Hazen, Chief Executive of the National Cooperative Business Association, says the time is right for co-operatives especially in the wake of the Occupy movement along with the “response to the recent recession and the concentration of wealth in the top 1% will propel cooperatives to new levels”.

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