With just over a month to go until the International Cooperative Alliance’s Global Conference in Panama, the first speakers are being announced, and the programme is now live.
The event aims to bring together co-operative leaders, practitioners, policymakers, and partners from around the world to exchange ideas, share experiences, and highlight the impact and future of the global co-operative movement
The event is co-hosted by ICA regional body Cooperatives of the Americas, and takes place at the Panama Convention Centre on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 September. It will be preceded by sectoral and committee meetings (13-14 September) and the ICA General Assembly (15 September) – where delegates will gather to discuss key matters concerning the future of the Alliance and elect the ICA global board and president. The IX Continental Congress on Cooperative Law and II International Symposium on Cooperative Law will also be hosted as part of the event on 16-17, while the Cooperatives of the Americas elective Regional Assembly happens on Friday 18 September.
The conference theme – Building bridges: co-operative contributions for a peaceful world – is reflected throughout the programme, which features a combination of high-level addresses, keynote speeches, panels and workshops.
Panel debates will look at how co-operatives contribute to peace and discuss the future of the movement, while workshops will explore the themes of the ICA 2026-2030 Strategy: Practice, Promote, Protect.
“The Global Conference programme is an opportunity to hear from such a diverse range of co-operative speakers, practitioners and allies,” said Marc Noel, conference programme lead for the ICA.
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“In a world where conflicts continue to make life difficult for so many, building bridges has never been more important. Our speakers will share experiences from across the globe, speak about their own co-operative contributions for a peaceful world, and explore co-operative ways forward, together.”
Speakers announced so far include José Raul Mulino Quintero, president of Panama, and Erika Vargas, executive director at Instituto Panameño Autónomo Cooperativo (Ipacoop), the national body founded in 1980 responsible for registering, supporting, supervising, directing, and implementing the country’s co-operative policies.
Sabelo Mbokazi (head of labour, employment and migration at the African Union Commission), María Ortiz Pérez (executive director for leadership initiatives at the Aspen Institute, Mexico) and Donna Dizon (Climbs Cooperative, Philippines) will be among those taking part in the panel debates.
Workshop speakers include Bibiana Aido (UN Women, Panama), Ana Aguirre Uriz (dirección de gobierno abierto y buen gobierno, Basque Country, Spain), Harsh Sanghani (ICA Youth Committee president, India) and Sarah Alldred (Fund for International Cooperative Development, UK), David Fernández Puyana (University for Peace to the United Nations) and Akkanut Wantanasombut (Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University).
The event will also see the launch of a flagship publication combining the ICA’s SDG Policy Brief series, developed over the last 18 months with the UN Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (Copac) to show how co-operatives are essential partners in helping the world to achieve the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The publication aims to “serve as a lasting reference on co-operatives and sustainable development and will support global advocacy efforts in the lead-up to the UN SDG Summit in September 2027,” said ICA director of policy, Joseph Njuguna.
Panama covers approximately 29 square miles and has a population of 4.6 million. It has more than 615 active co-ops, with over 256,000 members and assets exceeding US$2.7bn. The leader in terms of assets and financial volume nationally is multi-service co-operatives, but the sector as a whole covers finance, agriculture, agro-industry, transport, housing and education – with a special focus on youth and school co-ops.
The ICA has two members in the country: Ipacoop and Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples Profesionales. According to Ipacoop, among the main challenges are regulation and compliance with both national and international standards on the prevention of money laundering – and the constant pressure to modernise technologically.
But the aim, Ipacoop told the ICA in a recent interview is to establish the co-operative model as a driver of wellbeing, especially in communities. “This means innovating by supporting small enterprises in rural communities, particularly those led by women co-operative members or entrepreneurs, who in recent months have shown growing interest in joining the co-operative system.”
The conference theme, it adds, “is grounded in Panama’s representation as a bridge of the world and the heart of the universe,” viewing Panama as a country that actively promotes peace and is always open to dialogue.
“The Bridge of the Americas unites co-operativism across cultures and highlights that people stand above any conflict; it is a symbol of Panamanian identity that spans the Panama Canal and emphasizes that we connect North America with South America. In this way we foster collaboration among the different co-operatives of the region, creating a space for connectivity to bring together more than 1,500 co-operative delegates from around the world at the conference.”
Dr José Alves de Souza Neto, president of the Cooperatives of the Americas, added: “We are delighted to welcome co-operative friends from all over the world to our region. We look forward to welcoming them to a place that is particularly significant, because here in Panama, the Bridge of the Americas connects us from north to south and symbolises the unity in diversity of our continent. We hope this conference will bear fruit so that, throughout the world, we can continue to build bridges for peace, as we co-operative members have been doing for many decades”.
Peace was also at the heart of the ICA’s International Day of Cooperatives messaging (“Cooperatives for a Peaceful World”) with ICA president, Dr Ariel Guarco, saying: “Co-operatives are also schools of peace, as they promote dialogue, transparency, and fraternal exchange among people from the most diverse cultural, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds.”
Humanity, he added, “urgently needs to move towards a future of peace as a result of solidarity, inclusion, and social justice”. In his view, “co-operatives are probably the only vehicle capable of guaranteeing that this transformation is carried out with community control and can, therefore, be oriented toward the common good.”
Find out more and register at ICAPanama2026.coop
