ICA leaders, UK delegates and co-operators from all over the world participated in a debate on the Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade at the Leadership Forum on Tuesday, 30 October.
The session was part of Co-operatives United and brought together key figures of the co-operative world in an engaging discussion of the future of the movement.
Present at the Forum, ICA President, Dame Pauline Green, said the Blueprint aims to “take us on a journey on the next stage of the evolution of this document”.
Dame Pauline Green said the blueprint sets a very ambitious agenda for co-ops, but she emphasised it is ‘not an ICA agenda, but a global one”. She encouraged the co-op leaders present at the forum to “think about what is the future for the coop movement and how we can make sure that by 2020 this movement is moving in the direction that we believe it needs to grow to expand our family and make it the fastest expanding business model 2012”.
ICA Director General, Charles Gould, said two important trends are converging in the 8 year Blueprint. One trend is the direction the General Assembly gave to the ICA to align the organisation and ensure that all decision making bodies have some agreement on where to collectively take the co-op movement, ensure that the co-op movement is not moving in fragmented ways, but rather in an aligned way.
The second one is ensuring the enthusasm gained throughout the International Year of Co-operatives is used to promote the co-operative enterprise model further and build a decade of co-operation. Charles Gould said the plan is driven by a vision.
Following short presentations of the key declarations from 2012 global events (Venice Euricse scientific conference, Dunsany Declaration, Global Cooperative Finance Summit and the International Summit in Quebec), the delegates tried to highlight what the co-op movement will look like in 2020. A key focus at the Forum was creating the framework for a plan of action.
The main strategic themes covered in the Blueprint are participation, sustainability, identity, capital and legislation.
The Planning work group for the Blueprint included Dame Pauline Green, Stephane Bertrand (Desjardins), Nelso Kuria from the Co-op insurance Company of Kenya, Mark Craig, The Co-op Group, Zhang Wangshu from All China Federation.
The writing and research was conducted by Cliff Mills from The Oxford Centre for Mutual Employee-owned Businesses.
The delegates will discuss the Blueprint further at the ICA general Assembly starting at 13:00 on Wednesday, 31 October.
In this article
Join the Conversation