Peace is more than an absence of conflict. The seeds needed to create a society without warfare are sown long before the first blood is drawn. And co-ops are vital actors in creating harmonious communities in a world rife with economic, political and environmental challenges. These were the prevailing messages that emerged at the ICA Global Conference and General Assembly in Panama in September, which brought together over 1,100 people from around 80 countries under the theme Building Bridges: Cooperative contributions for a peaceful world.
The week – which included the ICA elective General Assembly, the publication of a policy brief demonstrating how co-operatives are essential partners in helping the world to achieve the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the launch of the Panama Declaration – heard from dignitaries and co-operative practitioners, leaders and academics. The idea of peace, and how co-operatives lay the groundwork for the conditions of peace, was a thread from the very start, with video messages shared by Indian development economist Jayati Ghosh and Tunisian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Laureate Ahmed Ben Tahar Galai.
“The problems we face … cannot be resolved through entirely nationalistic approaches. They require co-operation,” said Ghosh. “We have to move away from a pessimistic appreciation of the world that we’re in towards a recognition that it still contains possibilities – and that working together, we can work towards a better outcome for everyone”
Galai highlighted that the co-op movement, “as a structure of the social and solidarity economy, can contribute to [peace] because it breaks with the capitalist system that drives wars: the system of profit at all costs, the system of hoarding wealth in the hands of a minority … These structural causes are the origins of war, and the co-op movement can point them out.”
“Our country has been and will be a builder of bridges,” said Roberto Linares, Panama’s minister of agricultural development, representing the president, H.E. José Raúl Mulino Quintero. He highlighted how, with the conference being hosted in Panama, the country has “become the epicentre of solidarity, equality and peace”.
Rolando González Patricio, president of the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (Parlatino), told delegates the region is subject to specific regional pressure. But, he said, the Parlatino is “embracing interdialogue and interco-operation to build a better, fairer and more peaceful future”. This builds on work undertaken in 2012, he added, when the Parlatino formalised a historic agreement with Cooperatives of the Americas, which established a collaborative framework between the region’s legislative bodies and the co-op sector.
Ana Graça, the UN’s resident coordinator in Panama, noted that sometimes bridges are not made of steel and cement. “Sometimes they are but built with trust and solidarity,” she said. “This is what co-operatives do: build bridges between people and communities, inclusion and opportunities, development and peace.”
Erika Vargas, executive director of Ipacoop, Panama, talked about the global nature of co-operatives. “When I look at this room, I don’t see a list of names or organisations – I see faces of effort that reflect a global co-operative community that works together with dignity and respect.” Ipacoop is one of two ICA members in Panama, along with Cooperativas Profesionales, who together co-hosted the event.
José Alves de Souza Neto, president of Cooperatives of the Americas, welcomed delegates to Panama on behalf of the regional office. A growing loss of trust in people and institutions means “the world needs bridges more than ever,” he said. “You can build walls, or you can build bridges. The co-op movement has chosen to build bridges – this is part of our identity and our story.”
Interview: Dr José Alves de Souza Neto
And ICA president Ariel Guarco noted that the Bridge of the Americas – which connects North and South America by spanning the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal in Panama City – was chosen as the logo for the conference, as “co-operatives identify deeply with the idea of bridges, particularly in such a tense, violent and conflict-ridden time”.
‘Peace is action’
In her keynote address, Bjørg Sandkjær, assistant secretary-general for policy coordination in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Desa), quoted UN secretary general, António Guterres, who said, “Peace is never passive; peace is hard work and peace is action”.
Sandkjær highlighted how for more than 80 years, the UN has worked to advance social rights and foster international co-operation. “This work is rooted in the conviction that security, development and human dignity are inseparable from lasting peace,” she said, adding that “peace can’t exist where exclusion prevails, development can’t flourish where conflict destroys opportunity … the UN increasingly emphasises prevention, addressing the drivers of conflict.”
She noted that co-operation is not a niche economic activity, but is an important model that can address these challenges. This was highlighted last year through two intergovernmental outcomes, the Doha Political Declaration and the Seville Commitment (Compromiso de Sevilla), two interconnected, landmark UN frameworks designed to reform global governance, supercharge social foundations, and secure the trillions of dollars needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both of these, published during the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives, demonstrate how “Co-operatives are essential to building more peaceful, more equitable societies.”
Related: UN voices for peace at the Global Cooperative Conference
A panel debate moderated by ICA director general, Jeroen Douglas, looked at the co-operative path to peaceful multilateralism.
During the session, several international figures stressed the sector’s growing political and economic weight. The EU ambassador-designate to Panama, Andrea Matteo Fontana, pointed to co-operatives’ role in linking economic development with social inclusion, while Spain’s secretary of state for the social economy, Amparo Merino Segovia, highlighted recent legislative momentum — including a new Spanish law backing the social economy and a fresh Spain-Brazil-Colombia initiative supporting the social and solidarity economy. But she cautioned that “we need to move forward and create a political and institutional agenda that is real and efficient”.
Thérèse Faye Diouf of the Pan-African Parliament linked co-op development directly to food security and youth employment, arguing that collective action is essential to economic resilience, and noted the Parliament’s adoption of a continent-wide model co-operative law.
Other speakers framed co-operatives as tools for peace and global reform. World Bank adviser Shobha Shetty described the model as central to World Bank food-security efforts despite mounting agricultural shocks. Uruguay’s foreign minister Mario Lubetkin argued that international co-operation can prevent conflict, saying “differences between countries don’t have to become armed conflicts.”
And ICA Cooperative Law Committee chair Hagen Henrÿ went further, suggesting that embedding co-operative principles into national law could reshape global governance itself — envisioning, in his words, “a new type of multilateralism, made by co-operatives”.
On the afternoon of the first day of the conference, co-operators gathered for breakout workshops exploring the three elements of the ICA 2026–2030 Strategy: Practice, Promote, Protect.
Practice
The Practice breakout session sought to build bridges between generations, genders, and the wider co-operative movement while exploring what it means to put co-operative values into practice. Peace is not just a word, it’s an action, delegates agreed, which includes social justice, equal opportunities, and access to education – and co-operators have a role to play.
During the session, three panels brought together voices from across the co-operative movement to look at issues of youth, gender and scalability. While research shows co-operatives that invest in youth education, create meaningful governance pathways for young members, and advance gender-equitable leadership outperform their peers, systemic barriers remain. Youth representation in co-operative governance is low, co-operative education curricula often fail to reach young people, and women continue to face structural obstacles to leadership.
The youth panel heard from co-operators who were strikingly different, but who arrived at the same conclusion: young people need more presence and trust – and mentorship that runs both ways, from adults to youth and back again.
In the women’s panel, three different experiences were again united by a common thread: women challenging expectations and reshaping the systems around them.
Related: No peace without economic resilience: Why the CM50 is so important
The CM50 (Cooperatives and Mutuals 50) panel turned to scale, reaffirming that joining forces matters now, and how varied entrepreneurial realities look across regions and sectors.
Together, the three panels agreed that co-operative values aren’t just theoretical, but are being lived, tested, and proven, as a practical path to peace built on justice, opportunity, and shared prosperity.
Promote
In the Promote breakout session, Building Bridges Through Communication and Advocacy: From Visibility to Influence, communicators, advocates, and co-operative leaders came together for a dynamic session, designed to equip delegates with the tools to amplify co-operative narrative, shape policies, and drive systemic change.
The event also launched the ICA Communications Strategy 2026-2030 (Speak Up, Scale Up), with delegates called to use the strategy in their communications plans.
A panel on advocacy underscored the importance of documenting and communicating the economic, social and environmental impact of co-operatives in order to influence policies, shape regional agendas, and engage in multilateral processes.
Protect
Co-operation takes many forms across countries and cultures, but the movement is underpinned by co-op values and principles that make co-operative business different from traditional enterprises.
The Protect breakout session explored what this means in reality, from identity and national legislation to member practice, education and democratic culture.
This session took the form of a Cooperative Identity Lab – a participant-led event designed as “a space for conversation, curiosity and collective inquiry into what it means to protect co-op identity in a changing world”.
Attendees discussed how legislation, education, co-operation among co-operatives, culture, democratic participation, technology and the everyday practice of membership are all important to ensuring co-operative identity remains meaningful and visible.
Co-ops as bridge-builders
The second day of the conference opened with a keynote from ICA president, Ariel Guarco, who said peace is “a sensitive topic that is difficult to tackle”. And it can’t be discussed, he added, “without doing a deep dive into the current global situation and trying to understand the conditions that are creating conflict”.
He noted the UN was founded to reduce conflict after two world wars – but that there are currently 130 active armed conflicts (ICRC), 65 state-based conflicts in 2025 (the highest since 1946, PRIO), and world military spending stands at US$2.89tn annually. Some leaders now present “force and confrontation as legitimate instruments for resolving differences,” he said.
Meanwhile, there are 730 million people facing hunger, 260 million young people not in education, employment or training, 2.1 billion working informally, 4.6 billion without full access to essential health services, and 2.8 billion with a housing deficit. Climate displacement, said Guarco, “is destabilising communities and putting social peace at risk”.
Against this, co-operatives are a model that “put people at the centre”, he said, citing Pope Francis’ statement that if the economy is not in the hands of people, ‘the economy kills’. “Without economic democracy, there is no other kind of democracy either,” he added.
Guarco rejected the idea that society is passive, praising the “millions of co-operators already at work” to make lives better through access to finance, farming, housing, health care, technology and utilities, as well as those working in retail, organising as worker co-operatives and preserving cultural practice.
On AI, he warned of the risk of “concentrating enormous power in very few hands”, adding: “It is strategic for us to push forward our own alternatives from within the co-operative movement”.
Guarco told delegates that “peace is built, reaffirmed and consolidated day by day, through the contribution that each citizen makes”, and that it comes from “sincere, fraternal dialogue” rather than aggressive rhetoric, xenophobia and radicalised nationalism.
Describing co-operatives as bridge-builders that can develop “civil diplomacy where the diplomacy of governments has been cut”, he recalled sessions where co-operators from countries whose governments were in conflict kept up “a fraternal, constructive, co-operative dialogue.”
It helps, he added, that the model is one increasingly recognised by the UN system, Unesco, national governments and the ILO’s Americas office, which recently said co-operatives are “central pillars of the social infrastructure for peace [which] is a proven track record of more than 200 years”.
“If the co-operative movement was a country, we would be the largest in the world,” he said. “If the co-op movement was an economy, we would be the largest in the world. If it was a language, it would be the most widely spoken in the world.
“We need a more equal, inclusive and peaceful world. We know how to do and we have the tools, so let’s work together for this better world that I’m sure we all want and that we all deserve.”
Local Roots to Global Impact
The theme of peace continued with reflections from Tangariki Reete, Kiribati’s minister of tourism, commerce, industry and cooperatives, and Gloria María De León Zubieta, Panama’s minister of tourism, on the role co-operatives can play in supporting communities and contributing to peace – particularly in the face of climate change.
In a final panel moderated by Cooperatives of the Americas’ regional director, Danilo Salerno, María Ortiz, executive director for leadership initiatives, Aspen Institute, Mexico, highlighted that the conference felt particularly relevant for the current times – and that it was particularly symbolic to discuss finding pathways to connect people and communities in a “location that literally connects the American continent.”
David Aguilar, academic affairs manager, City of Knowledge, spoke about Ciudad del Saber, the Panama City innovation hub built on the former Fort Clayton military base, covering its history, mission, and the community of businesses, UN agencies, NGOs, government bodies, and academic programs based there.
Related: Mapping the cultural heritage of co-ops
Valtencir Mendes, chief of education, Unesco Office for Latin America Second section, spoke bout AI and introduced the AI education observatory they have developed, while Donna Dizon, senior vice president at Climbs insurance co-op, shared updates from the Cooperative College of the Philippines and its partnership with Co-operatives UK.
Halefom Gezaei Abera, from Fana Youth Sacco, Ethiopia, shared how the organisation is expanding access to savings, credit, entrepreneurship support and skills-building for young people, helping turn financial inclusion into a pathway for hope, opportunity and recovery.
And Simone Gamberini described how Legacoop is facilitating enabling environments as pathways to peace in Italy and beyond.
François Dionne, from Socodevi, spoke about cocoa co-operatives in Colombia as a driver of development, social inclusion and post-conflict reconciliation, linking Colombia’s peace process and reintegration efforts to the co-op model’s economic results — higher incomes, market access and productivity gains for cacao-growing families. He highlighted the social outcomes too: strong participation of women (84% in decision-making) and youth, community leadership, and international recognition of Colombia’s cocoa.
During the session, Milagros Arias Tuñón, Mateo Cando and Kiriam Palma (three young leaders from Latin America) were called for a Q&A with senior leaders to exchange knowledge and lessons that youth could use for their leadership growth.
It was agreed that organisations needed to better involve youth in programme execution, young people should be given genuine responsibility (not just token participation) and that co-ops should use young people’s skills and listen to them.
Salerno also shared a letter from Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile and former UN high commissioner for human rights, who urged the global movement to move beyond everyday business practices, to tackle peace, governance, and peaceful multilateralism on a wider scale.
Following the presentation of the Panama Declaration, Cooperatives of the Americas president, Jose Alves, reminded delegates that “a declaration should not be the end point of a conversation. It should be the beginning of a commitment. He added: “A co-operative can offer a local solution; millions of local solutions, connected by a global movement, can generate a transformative impact.”
To close the conference, Chitose Arai from Japanese Consumers’ Cooperative Union and Kenki Maeda from Japan Co-operative Alliance led a hands-on origami ceremony, bringing participants together to fold paper peace doves.
What else happened in Panama?
- Throughout the conference week, ICA structural organisations celebrated regional, sectoral and thematic side events. The International Cooperative Banking Association (ICBA), The International Cooperative Agricultural Organisation (ICAO), Gender Equality Committee, International Cooperative Entrepreneurship Think Tank (Icett), The International Organisation of Industrial and Service Cooperatives (Cicopa), Co-operative Housing International (CHI), International Cooperative Alliance Development Platform (ICADP) and the The ICA programme on Cooperative Cultural Heritage (CCH) all held events.
- Delegates also had the opportunity to explore the idea of Cooperative AI: Shaping the Future Together in a session hosted by the ICA, Legacoop and the Pico Foundation (LegaCoop’s digital innovation hub), who launched the Cooperative AI programme, with the aim of becoming a leading player, influencing the development and governance of AI according to the co-operative identity.
- Ariel Guarco launched his new book, Cooperativas en Acción II (Co-operatives in Action II, currently available in Spanish only), which showcases stories of co-operation from around the world.
- Noel Raboy (Climbs), a director of the Fund for International Cooperative Development, invited global co-operatives to apply for solidarity funding after making US$68,000 available for co-operative-led action.
- Violetta Nafpaktiti shared updates from DotCooperation, which manages the .coop domain, Coop Marque assets and Cooperative World Map, among others. She invited all attendees to put their members on the map and connect with the digital assets the global movement has created for them.
- Parallel to the conference, the ICA Law Committee and the Cooperatives of the Americas IX Continental Congress on Co-operative Law convened the Second International Symposium on Cooperative Law. The event brought together co-operative lawyers, scholars, practitioners and movement leaders to examine how law can preserve co-operative identity while responding intelligently to economic, technological and societal change.
- Thiago Schmidt, chair of the ICA Cooperative Cultural Heritage Working Group, announced the 2026 inscriptions to the CCH map, comprising 63 new sites and elements from 39 countries.
