Over 1,100 people from 80 countries attended the ICA Global Conference and Assembly in Panama this week, with 90 speakers delivering keynote sessions, panel discussions and workshops.
Jointly organised in Panama City from 13-17 September by the International Cooperative Alliance and Cooperatives of the Americas, the week culminated in the launch of the Panama Declaration, which proclaims co-operation as a powerful force for peace, justice, inclusion and shared prosperity.
The document focuses on the conference theme – Building Bridges: Cooperative Contributions for a Peaceful World – and highlights the movement’s longstanding commitment to creating economic, social and environmental value: improving the lives of members, strengthening communities, contributing to national and regional development and, collectively, creating global impact. Together, the declaration says, these are the ingredients for peace.
Presenting the document, and echoing a sentiment shared throughout the week, ICA director general, Jeroen Douglas noted how the world is currently being driven by multiple armed conflicts, the erosion of the rule of law, deepening inequality, shrinking civic space, and disruptive artificial intelligence.
He said: “In the face of this profound instability, as we prepare to return to our home countries across every continent, we face an essential question: What is our response?
“The Panama Declaration gives us our answer … It shows us that we are not passive observers of history. We are instead millions of enterprises and more than 1.2 billion members bound by a simple, revolutionary truth: co-operation is a powerful force for peace. Co-operating equals practising peace.
The declaration noted that building positive peace requires society to address not only the immediate causes of violence and conflict, but also the social, economic, political and environmental conditions that create tension, exclusion and insecurity.
This is something co-operatives do through their very structures, says the declaration, as demonstrated by co-operatives’ contributions to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Related: Report from the ICA Global Conference in Panama
Over the last two years, the ICA and the Committee for the Advancement and Promotion of Cooperatives have published a series of policy briefs, demonstrating co-operatives as critical partners for the future of sustainable development. A full report combining all of the Policy briefs was launched during the conference. ICA director of policy, Joseph Njuguna, who led the policy brief process, said the new document is a celebration of what co-operatives have achieved and a practical advocacy tool.
“Our ambition is simple,” he said, “for co-operatives to be recognised not as an alternative business model operating on the margins, but as one of the world’s most proven, democratic and scalable models for delivering inclusive, resilient and sustainable development.
“As we prepare for the next SDG Summit and the discussions that will shape the post-2030 development framework, the co-operative movement must be part of the conversation. The experience and voice of more than one billion co-operative members represent an enormous development asset and should help shape future solutions and partnerships.”
The Panama Declaration also reaffirmed the role of the UN and the multilateral system in bringing nations and peoples together, underscored the ICA’s longstanding role in addressing peace, and issued a number of calls to co-operators and wider stakeholders.
It said: “We call on co-operatives and members to make positive peace part of everyday practice. We call on governments to recognise co-operatives as strategic peacebuilding partners. We call on the United Nations and regional bodies to engage co-operatives as direct implementation partners in peacebuilding, recovery, and economic development. And we call on all states to uphold the rule of law, honour their commitments under international law and the UN Charter, resolve disputes peacefully, and reject impunity.”
