IYC 2025 Series: Building a Better World Together
Building a Better World Together: Cooperative Contributions to the SDGs is a policy brief series developed in support of the 2025 UN International Year of Cooperatives to showcase how cooperatives drive progress across the Sustainable Development Goals. The policy brief on SDG 17, Partnerships for the Goals, highlights how cooperatives strengthen global cooperation by linking grassroots initiatives to national strategies and international frameworks.
Drawing from real-world examples—from farmer cooperatives in East Timor and the Philippines to cooperative finance networks in Colombia, Armenia, and beyond—the brief demonstrates how cooperatives act as trusted partners in development, mobilizing resources, expanding access to finance, and building resilience in communities often left behind.
Produced by the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) and the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), this brief affirms the critical role of cooperatives in advancing SDG 17 during the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives and beyond.
#CoopsDay will be the occasion to spread the word about how a human-centred business model, sustained by the cooperative values of self-help and solidarity and the ethical values of social responsibility and concern for community, can reduce inequality, create shared prosperity.
About the International Day
The United Nations International Day of Cooperatives is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July. The aim of this celebration is to increase awareness on cooperatives, highlight the complementary goals and objectives of the United Nations and the international cooperative movement, underscore the contributions of the movement to the resolution of the major problems addressed by the United Nations and strengthen and extend partnerships between the international cooperative movement and other actors.
In 1992, following a concerted lobbying effort by the cooperative members of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and COPAC members, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the International Day of Cooperatives by the UN by resolution 47/90 of 16 December 1992.
The date of the celebration of the International Day was chosen to coincide with the already existing International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) International Cooperative Day with has been celebrated since 1923.
In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly adopted another resolution 49/151 of 23 December 1994 on cooperatives, which not only called on governments and international agencies to:
“consider fully the potential of cooperatives for contributing to the solution of economic, social and environmental problems in formulating national development strategies; and consider reviewing legal and administrative constraints on the activities of cooperatives with a view to eliminating those constraints that are not applied to other businesses and enterprises”, but also invited
“…governments, relevant international organizations, specialized agencies and national and international cooperative organizations to observe annually the International Day of Cooperatives on the first Saturday of July starting from 1995, as proclaimed by the General Assembly in its resolution 47/90”.
The theme and slogan are generally selected in the first quarter of the year by COPAC.
Past #Coopsday slogans
- 2020: Cooperatives for climate action
- 2019: Coops 4 decent work
- 2018: Sustainable societies through cooperation
- 2017: Cooperatives ensure no one is left behind
- 2016: Cooperatives: The power to act for a sustainable future
- 2015: Choose cooperatives, choose equality
- 2014: Cooperative enterprises achieve sustainable development for all
- 2013: Cooperative enterprises remain strong in times of crisis
- 2012: Cooperative enterprises build a better world
- 2011: Youth, the future of co-operative enterprise
- 2010: Cooperative enterprise empowers women
- 2009: Driving Global Recovery through Cooperative Enterprise
- 2008: Confronting Climate Change through Cooperative Enterprise
- 2007: Cooperative Values and Principles for Corporate Social Responsibility
- 2006: Peace-Building through Cooperatives
- 2005: Microfinance is OUR business: Cooperating out of poverty
- 2004: Cooperatives for Fair Globalisation: Creating Opportunities for All
- 2003: Cooperatives Make Development Happen!: The contribution of cooperatives to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals
- 2002: Society and Cooperatives: Concern for Community
- 2001: The Cooperative Advantage in the Third Millennium
- 2000: Cooperatives and Employment Promotion
- 1999: Public Policy and Co-operative Legislation
- 1998: Cooperatives and the Globalization of the Economy
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