The Fundación Espriu, present at the ICA Assembly in Manchester
The ICA brought together delegates from all over the world to define the route to be taken by the cooperative movement as a driver of global transformation.
On the 2nd of July of this year, the historic city council of Manchester, the cradle of the modern cooperative movement, hosted the General Assembly of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). The meeting brought together 400 delegates from all over the world in the city where, in the 19th century, a business model was born that today groups together almost 1,000 million people.
The Manchester agenda
The opening session was presided over by Carmine Grinshwa, Lord Mayor of Manchester, who underscored the city’s cooperative legacy and its close links with the values of the ICA. The British federation, Co-operatives UK, which represents over 7,000 cooperatives that are currently active in the United Kingdom, acted as the meeting’s host. The Fundación Espriu took part in the assembly represented by its General Director, Dr. Carlos Zarco.
During the meeting the ICA’s strategic plan for the 2025-2030 period was approved, based on the theory of change, which positions the organisation as a global agent of transformation. It is a strategy of movement, rather than a simple management plan, which sets as priorities the promoting the cooperative advantage, encouraging the creation of new companies, strengthening leadership by women and young people, promoting research and training, taking advantage of technological platforms, intensifying the political incidence, moving forward in sustainability and guaranteeing the financial growth of the movement.
The assembly also tackled the situation in Ecuador, where a recent legal reform threatens to force savings and credit cooperatives into becoming limited liability companies, a precedent that could have serious consequences for the entire region.
The Manchester agenda was completed with a new session of the Cooperative Leadership Circle (CM50), which continued the meeting organised in May by the Fundacion Espriu in Madrid. Dr. Zarco took an active part in the debates by this group that brought together the leaders of the largest cooperatives and mutual societies in the world. The members of the CM50 decided to concentrate their efforts on three priority areas: the reconstruction after conflicts, the promotion of education and cooperative governance and the creation of a global cooperative market.
Upcoming editions
Looking towards the future, the CM50 will meet again in Doha, within the framework of the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development that will be held from the 4th to the 6th of November. There, the CM50 Manifesto and the Commitment Plan will be officially launched, along with the presentation of a special issue of the World Cooperative Monitor and the closing ceremony of the International Year of Cooperatives.
With these decisions, the ICA and the CM50 are strengthening their role as global benchmarks and they are reaffirming the validity of cooperativism as a driver for sustainable and equal development.
