Coopermondo’s Director, Danilo Salerno, illustrated Coopermondo and its members experience during the international development cooperation workshop that took place this morning at Cooperatives Europe General Assembly, where yesterday the new president Jean Luis Bancel has been elected.
The workshop, coordinated by Dame Pauline Green, form President of the International Cooperative Alliance, focused on Cooperatives Europe’s work on international cooperation through its  group formed by 10 partner organizations dedicated to this sector – Cooperatives Europe Development Platform CEDP
Coopermondo’s work has been presented through its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals in the AGRICOOP project in Colombia where the NGO of Confcooperative is active in 5 different regions to strengthen and promote solidarity and cooperative economy, working with indigenous peoples and women groups, in partnership with the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje SENA.
Moreover Salerno valorized the “WomeNpowerment in Coops” project, a working group that Coopermondo set up with the Commission of Women Manegers of Confcooperative in order to form a group of Italian cooperators expert on gender issues in development.
“The three case studies presented this morning has been the most impressive ones I had recently the chance to listen to. Danilo Salerno illustrated the Colombia project and how Coopermondo is contributing in building social cohesion in a post-conflict situation. How? By building trust, that is at the basis of cooperatives, in areas where people used to fight one against the other or were engaged in narcotraffic activities”, Dame Pauline Green declared.
The slides of Director Salerno’s presentation can be downloaded: Coopermondo_Malta_28042017
 
The video “From illicit crops to acquacolture cooperatives” that has been recorded in Cauca with some trouts producers Coopermondo works with.

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”.

Coopermondo’s commitment to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, has been recognized as the most relevant according to the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).
The contest, launched on the new website www.coopsfor2030.coop during the International Day of Cooperatives, aims at encouraging ICA member organizations to publicly pledge on how they plan to contribute to the achieving one of the 17 sustainable development goals.
As far as it is concerned, Coopermondo committed to create, by 2020, at least 10 new cooperative enterprises run by young people, women or indigenous communities in developing countries, with the aim of helping eradicating poverty in the world (SDG No. 1) by promoting a cooperative economy based on economic democracy, decent work (SDG n ° 8) and equal opportunities for both men and women (SDG n ° 5).
In light of this recognition, Coopermondo was invited to participate in the International Summit of Cooperatives, the world’s leading event for enterprise development in the cooperative community, organized by Des Jardins Group and by the ICA and which will be held from 10 to 13 October 2016 in Quebec City, Canada.
As international cooperation and sustainable development goals are on the agenda, Coopermondo will participate to the summit. On October 10 there will be a side-event organized by the CEDP, the group of Cooperatives Europe dedicated to international development cooperation (of which Coopermondo is a member): along with Dame Pauline Green policies and strategies to strengthen partnerships between cooperatives around the world with the aim of promoting collaborative economy in the most difficult contexts will be discussed. It will also be an opportunity to show the experiences of international cooperation of its members.
In addition, the intensive program of the days that follow will address many issues dear to Coopermondo: food security, gender issues and financial inclusion, amongst the others. This will be an important opportunity to reinforce partnerships, share experiences, learn new methodologies and discuss the impact that cooperatives have in the most difficult contexts.

PIn New York, from 11th to 20th July, meets the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, the United Nations Platform for the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The Forum brings together senior political officials and global stakeholders with the aim of promoting sustainable development by providing policy guidance and recommendations.
At a side event, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) presented the first results of www.coopsfor2030.coop platform created to engage the cooperatives to the sustainable development goals. The global campaign #coopsfor2030 unites and involves cooperatives in the implementation process of the SDGs. Coopermondo has publicly committed to “contribute to eradicating poverty by providing cooperative training and technical assistance in developing countries” in order to “create at least 10 new cooperatives managed by women, youth and indigenous people by 2020“. So far on the platform almost 100 pledges have been received.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, on the occasion of the International Day of Cooperatives, 2nd July 2016, has publicly acknowledged the importance of the cooperative experience for the achievement of the sustainable development goals: “I urge Governments to create an enabling environment for co- operatives to thrive and grow. Let us harness the power of co-operatives to achieve the SDGs and create a world of dignity and opportunity for all.”
The President of the ICA, Monique F. Leroux said: “We are grateful for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s support. Today is the day to commit to being a part of a different future than the one where we are otherwise headed. Ensuring that no one is left behind and contributing to eradicating poverty, co-operatives are unique in that they combine economic success with democratic governance and concern for community. This makes co-ops inherently sustainable businesses – significant social and economic actors. Co-ops generate more than 2.6 trillion USD in annual revenues and create over 250 million jobs.”
This fall, from 11 to 13 October 2016, the most important event for the development of the cooperative business, the International Summit of Cooperatives, will take place in Canada and will bring together leaders, employees, agencies and experts from around the world for a dialogue on the resolution of global problems and to support sustainable development goals (to learn more visit www.summit.coop).