Health cooperatives to build a better world
In the International Year of Cooperatives, this model, applied to the field of medicine, has confirmed its efficiency, contributing to guarantee universal access to healthcare and promoting the association of healthcare professionals.
“Cooperatives build a better world.” This is the slogan chosen by the United Nations Organisation (UN) to celebrate the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC). The intention behind the events that will take place during 2025 is to be able to put the spotlight on the cooperative model as a fundamental solution for mankind to be able to successfully face up to the many challenges worldwide, particularly regarding the necessary speeding up of the tasks to be undertaken to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) promoted by the United Nations for 2030.
This is the second time that this type of recognition for cooperatives has taken place, after the previous CoopsYear, back in 2012. As indicated by Li Junhua, the Assistant General Secretary of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the UN, this new celebration “will be an opportunity to mobilise all the parties interested in supporting and expanding cooperatives,” as a way of contributing to building a better future for the human race as a whole.
Social and economic well-being
This organisation model takes on special importance in the health area. Last July, 2024, Dr. Carlos Zarco, the Medical Director at the Hospital Universitario Moncloa, General Manager of the Fundación Espriu and Chairman of the International Healthcare Cooperative Organisation (IHCO), took part in the presentation ceremony of the IYC at the head offices of the UN in New York. There, he underscored the work carried out by cooperatives to guarantee the universal access to medical services, providing healthcare coverage to over one hundred million households around our planet.
Without any doubt, cooperatives fulfil an important social function, but they also generate economic growth and progress. In his speech, Dr. Zarco also did not hesitate to indicate that “the world economy cannot be understood without the over 3 million cooperatives that exist all over the world and in which 12% of the world population participate as cooperative members. Cooperatives give employment to 10% of the population and the 300 largest ones alone make a total invoicing volume of 2.4 billion dollars.”
