How was the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives for you and your organisation?
For UN Desa, the International Year of Cooperatives 2025 was an extraordinary opportunity to advance our mission of promoting inclusive and sustainable development. The year served as a global platform to highlight the transformative role of co-operatives in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in areas such as poverty eradication, decent work, and social integration. Throughout 2025, UN Desa worked closely with other UN entities to ensure that co-operatives were integrated into their work programmes, reinforcing the recognition of co-operatives as vital actors in development.
This collaboration extended to numerous national and international organisations, enabling us to amplify the good news about co-operatives and their contributions to economic resilience and social inclusion. We organised high-level policy dialogues, capacity-building workshops, and knowledge-sharing initiatives that brought together governments, co-operative movements, and civil society. These efforts strengthened partnerships and created a shared understanding of how co-operative principles align with global development priorities. The year also provided an opportunity to collect and disseminate best practices, fostering innovation and inspiring new co-operative models worldwide. Overall, 2025 was a landmark year, reaffirming our commitment to supporting member states in leveraging co-operatives as engines of sustainable development.
What are your hopes for 2026?
Looking ahead to 2026, UN Desa hopes to build on the momentum generated during the International Year of Cooperatives 2025. Our vision is to translate the awareness and partnerships forged in 2025 into concrete actions that strengthen co-operative development globally. We aim to assist member states in integrating co-operative strategies into national development plans and to expand research and data collection on co-operative impact. Importantly, we believe that the lessons learned by countries, co-operatives, and international organisations during 2025 will lead to significant growth and innovation within the
co-operative sector.
These lessons will help co-operatives scale up their contributions to poverty eradication, the provision of decent work, and social integration, ultimately making the world a better place. UN Desa will continue to foster dialogue and collaboration, ensuring that co-operatives remain central to addressing emerging challenges such as climate change, digital transformation, and economic inequality.
By promoting inclusive policies and supporting capacity-building, we hope to see co-operatives thrive as key partners in sustainable development. Our aspiration for 2026 is clear: to transform the progress made during the International Year of Cooperatives into lasting impact, empowering communities and advancing the global agenda for a fairer, more resilient, and sustainable future.
