Cooperatives have been underlined as a key partners for the United Nations to advance its 2030 sustainability agenda in a report demonstrating how the model actively progresses each of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Over the last two years, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the UN Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) have been producing a series of policy briefs to demonstrate how cooperatives are essential partners in helping the world to achieve the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Today (16 September), all 17 briefs have been published as a single report, highlighting cooperative contributions to each of the SDGs and showcasing the cooperative movement’s role as a key partner in SDG implementation.
The 120-page document comprises case studies from nearly 90 countries, and was launched in Panama during the ICA Global Cooperative Conference. Presenting the document, ICA Director General Jeroen Douglas said:
“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) build peace by focusing on the foundational attitudes, institutions and structures required to eliminate the root causes of violence. This is what cooperatives do, too. We work towards peace and justice. We provide economic empowerment and work together to reduce poverty and hunger. We work in frameworks of accountability and inclusive decision-making, and create inclusive spaces that empower women, youth and marginalised communities.
“These policy briefs demonstrate this intrinsic link between the cooperative values and principles and sustainable development – and it feels right to launch them during our 2026 Global Conference, with its theme Building Bridges: Cooperative Contributions for a Peaceful World. These briefs demonstrate these contributions in action around the world.”
Receiving the first copy, Bjørg Sandkjær, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), said: “The SDGs are a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity. The responsibility rests with us to make sure no one gets left behind. Economies are stronger and more resilient when all people can participate fully in economic and social life.”
The SDGs were adopted in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with the ultimate aims of taking steps toward peace and prosperity for people and the planet, tackling climate change, and working to preserve oceans and forests.
A decade into the agenda, the UN also proclaimed the second International Year of Cooperatives (IYC2025) – and the idea for the policy briefs came from two converging opportunities: the IYC2025 and the growing recognition that cooperatives are essential partners in achieving the SDGs.
For each SDG, the ICA worked with the COPAC Coordinator, ICA regional colleagues and sectoral experts who understood both the technical dimensions of the Goal and the practical realities of cooperatives on the ground, with the drafting process involving extensive research, several rounds of peer review and consultations across regions to ensure both technical rigour and geographical balance.
ICA Director of Policy, Joseph Njuguna, who led the Policy Brief process, said the new document is both a celebration of what cooperatives have achieved and a practical advocacy tool to help accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda during its final stretch, with only four years remaining to achieve the Goals.
Njuguna adds: “While the briefs were designed first and foremost as practical policy tools, we hope governments will use them when preparing Voluntary National Reviews, designing national development strategies and reviewing cooperative legislation. We also hope UN agencies, development partners, researchers and civil society organisations will use them as evidence of what works and as a basis for stronger partnerships with the cooperative movement.
“Our ambition is simple: for cooperatives to be recognised not as an alternative business model operating on the margins, but as one of the world's most proven, democratic and scalable models for delivering inclusive, resilient and sustainable development.
“As we prepare for the next SDG Summit and the discussions that will shape the post-2030 development framework, the cooperative movement must be part of the conversation. The experience and voice of more than one billion cooperative members represent an enormous development asset and should help shape future solutions and partnerships.”
