Promoting the cooperative business model at international level and in the most difficult contexts in order to contribute to a more sustainable development of the planet. With this goal on October 10th the “Global Cooperative Development Platform GCDP” was launched during one of the parallel activities of the International Summit of Cooperatives, that is taking place in Quebec City from 11 to 14 November with over 3,000 representatives from all over the world. “Cooperatives and Mutuals in international development – How can we do more and better together” was the event under which took place the formalization of the new platform: Coopermondo-Confcooperative, with the presence of the Director, Danilo Salerno, participated to the event.
The side event was organized by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the Overseas Cooperative Development Council United States (OCDC) as part of the Partnership agreement signed between the ICA and the EU (FPA).
The event, facilitated by former ICA President Dame Pauline Green, brought together experts cooperators worldwide to share results, identifying lines of action, and facilitate collaboration to explore future partnerships within the international development.
The creation, five years ago, of the CEDP (the network of organizations dedicated to international cooperation of Cooperatives Europe) and the recognition of his work towards the EU institutions, have been crucial to the establishment of the global network. While the CEDP was created for the European region, and Coopermondo is one of 10 member organizations, the GCDP will enable the European network to connect to other regional networks with the aim of working together globally.
Dame Pauline Green said: “A Global Co-operative Development Platform does not have the aim to become a development agency, but to strengthen collaboration between co-operative development organisations and raise visibility and knowledge about the role co-operatives play in international development”.
“Yesterday was a crucial day for the future of cooperatives engaged in development cooperation. Coopermondo launched the proposal for a global network many years ago, during the meetings of the CEDP in Brussels and at international conferences in which we participated in the last five years”, said Director Danilo Salerno.
“Cooperation amongst cooperatives, the 6th cooperative principle, refers to all this, and if applied in development cooperation, it is clear that we have a competitive advantage over other actors of development cooperation. We potentially have partners in all African, Asian and Latin American countries: cooperative organizations that share our principles and models, that want to develop partnership for sharing knowledge and innovative ways of doing business.
Coopermondo is a key actor within the process that will lead to the establishment of the Global Platform: we could share skills and experiences of our projects and our partners, in order to make them grow, create new funding opportunities, change the development model that has produced inequalities and market distortions as mentioned by the Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz in his masterful Conference here at the Summit yesterday morning”.
