INTERNATIONAL DAY OF COOPERATIVES TO HIGHLIGHT CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

This year’s International Day of Cooperatives, to be observed on 7 July, will put the spotlight on the corporate social responsibility practised by the world’s booming cooperative industry.

“The sector exercises social responsibility as something inherent to its task,” said Daysi Rosales de Merino, Executive Director of the Advisers for Development Foundation in El Salvador.  “It pursues competitive business strategies, while ensuring the welfare of its members.”

Worldwide, some 800 million people are members of cooperatives and the world’s top 300 co-ops make over $963 billion in revenues, according to the latest “Global 300” list of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), an umbrella group with over 230 member organizations from over 100 countries. 

Cooperatives are “autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise,” according to the ICA.

By their very nature, cooperatives balance economic, environmental and social imperatives while at the same time addressing their members’ needs and expectations, says the ICA.

Corporate social responsibility generally indicates an enterprise's behaviour vis-à-vis health and safety, environmental protection, consumer protection, community development, supplier relations, labour protection and personnel practices, as well as policy aspects such as corporate governance, business ethics and stakeholder rights.

Stakeholders and the public at large are increasingly aware of the impact of decisions by corporations on society and the environment.  People reward or punish enterprises according to the way corporations address societal challenges.

For their part, enterprises are increasingly reaping the benefits of corporate social responsibility in terms of improved reputation and branding, improved evaluation by the investment community and stronger financial performance and profitability, for instance through eco-efficiency.  In the United Kingdom, United Co-operatives' commitment to the environment has seen energy reduction projects save the organization £2 million ($3.9 million).

Social responsibility is good for business, members of the cooperative sector say.  In 2001, the United Kingdom’s Cooperative Commission found cooperative and social performance to be one of the key contributors to the sector’s success.

In the United Kingdom alone, the Co-operative Bank calculated that 30 per cent of its £130 million ($258 million) profit could be attributed to its ethical stance, while the Co-operative Group estimated that the positive media coverage of its ethical campaigns was equivalent to £4.9 million ($9.7 million) in advertising.

“Investors in conventional businesses seek maximum short-term profit, often at the expense of the long-term development,” said ICA board member Paul Hazen.  “Cooperatives, on the other hand, are free to focus on sustained development and growth over a much longer time period.”

Thus, the theme of this year’s International Day of Cooperatives: “Cooperative Values and Principles for Corporate Social Responsibility”.  The Day was first proclaimed in 1992 by the General Assembly (resolution 47/90) to mark the centenary of the ICA.  In 1994, recognizing that cooperatives were becoming an indispensable factor of economic and social development, the Assembly made the Day an annual observance (resolution 49/155).

It is estimated that cooperatives employ some 100 million people, which means that their commitment to corporate and social responsibility has a huge impact.  Cooperatives are active in nearly every business sector -- from agriculture to finance, retail, health care, housing, building, utility and energy.

In the United States, about 48,000 cooperatives serve 120 million members in nearly every business sector.  The country’s top 100 cooperatives generate some $119 billion in revenue.  Familiar names such as Land O’Lakes, ACE Hardware, Ocean Spray, Sunkist and the Associated Press are cooperatives.

Cooperatives are equally strong in the developing world.  According to ICA, in Malaysia 5.5 million people, or 20 per cent of the population, are members of cooperatives.  In Colombia, the members are over 3.3 million, or 8 per cent of the population.  In Kenya, the members are 5.9 million, or 20 per cent of the population, and 20 million Kenyans directly or indirectly derive their livelihood from the cooperative movement.

India has the world’s highest number of agriculture cooperatives -- some 446,000, with a membership of 182 million.  But agriculture cooperatives are also strong in Japan, with 3,860 cooperatives and 42 million members; in Germany, with 9,100 cooperatives and 21 million members; and in Canada, with 7,800 cooperatives and 14 million members.

“We are an entrepreneurial structure that gives priority to its members, to citizens,” said Juan Carlos Fissore, president of COOPERAR, the Cooperative Federation of Argentina.  “Part of our capital is to provide a service, that’s why we have different characteristics.”

For further information, please visit http://www.copac.coop or contact Felice Llamas, Tel.: 212 963 2924, e-mail:  llamas@un.org, or Edoardo Bellando, Tel.: 212 963 8275, e-mail:  bellando@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record