Speaking Notes

PCC Forum of CEOs and Chairpersons

Participation via Skype

_ At the outset, I along with my colleagues Jeff Moxom (R.O.), Georgia Papoutsi (P.C.), Mohit Dave (P.M.-AP), Ivjyot
Singh (P.O.-AP) and Simren Singh (R.O.-AP) along with our directors Bruno Roleants (DG), Balu Iyer (RD-AP) and
Marc Noël (I.D.D.) would like to thank the cooperative movement in the Philippines, and its leaders present here, for
this opportunity to interact and share our ideas and work with this house today.

_ We would also like to remember our good friend and an inspirational collaborator Dany Ang (RIP) who we miss very
much.

_ We would also like to place on record our deepest appreciation for the Philippines’ cooperatives’ interest and action
to include the young generation in the movement in a strategic and effective manner, with the help of positive
discrimination powered by the PH’s national legislation on cooperatives.

A. Opening Statement

Since 1988 the International Cooperative Alliance has undertaken a world-wide review of the values and principles
upon which co-operatives base their activities, with the objectives in the global economy. This was culminated by way
of an online poll that determined the adoption of the 7 th principle on Concern for the Community-> the inclusion and
practice of which forms the basis of this presentation. This was part of the ICA Board Resolution on THE ICA Statement
on the Cooperative Identity and the Declaration on Cooperatives towards the 21 st Century’, that was presented to the
General Assembly in the run up to the ICA’s centennial Congress in 1995. The new set of principles replaced the
principles that were adopted by the ICA Congress in 1966, with a view that the Identity Statement (Definition + Values
+ principles) provided a broader framework that was applicable to all countries and sectors. The ICA urged concerned
national, international and intergovernmental bodies to consider inclusion of the Identity Statement in their rules, by-
laws and encouraged governments to base their respective cooperative legislations on the statement. The ICA General
Assembly also urged governments in 1995 to understand and accept the existence of a cooperative sector in the
economy within a legal framework which allows cooperatives to operate as independent, member controlled
organizations, and on equal terms with other forms of enterprise.

The Resolution of the ICA Board, and the subsequent Declaration of the ICA Assembly reaffirmed that Cooperatives
were organizations that existed primarily for the benefit of their members, and because of their strong association with
members, often within a specific geographic space, cooperatives were often closely tied to their communities while
having a special responsibility to ensure the economic, social and cultural sustainability of the (communities’)
development. However, it did add that it was up to the members of cooperatives to decide how deep and in what
specific ways cooperatives should contribute to their communities and that, it was not a responsibility that members
should seek to avoid.

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Over the two decades, the international community has striven to adopt international legislative instruments that could
manifest the inclusion of the notion of sustainable development, which was coined during the Rio Conference on
Sustainable Development in 1992. The advent of the new international economic order in the 1970s, the rise of
globalization and creation of market driven economies in the late 80s and early 90s in several developing countries of
the world, and of course the wide appreciation and adoption of the concept of sustainable development during the 90s
decade and the subsequent adoption of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, allowed the international community to
act together in areas of international trade, development of communities and environment protection. Cooperatives’
increasing recognition as a global peoples’ movement also paved the way for the international community to promote
securing the idea and practice of the cooperative enterprise model, and after the UN adopted a set of guidelines on
cooperative legislation in 2001, a firmer international legislative instrument namely, the ILO Recommendation 193
concerning the Promotion of Cooperatives, 2002. It is important to note that much before the relatively modern efforts
to promote internationalism (i.e. post the collapse of the USSR), the ILO had adopted Recommendation in 1966 on
Cooperatives, which was incidentally the year that witnessed the then last review of cooperative principles by the ICA.
This Recommendation was restricted to developing countries only. One must also remember that beyond these two
ILO Recommendations, the Recommendation 204 concerning the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy
also recognizes the importance and key role of cooperatives in according a better life to millions of people around the
world.

We will stick to the ILO -193 for the purpose of this presentation and attempt to explain its features and possible affect
on the attainment of the 17 SDGs -> that are part of the UN Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development, the latest
international legal instrument (and a source of international law) adopted by the international community in 2015.

B. Contents

In order to lay out our arguments in favour of the importance of the ILO Recommendation 193 on Promotion of
Cooperatives, 2002 (ILO-193) in achieving the SDGs, we have structured our presentation in four broad parts. Firstly,
we will decode the meaning and concerned sources of International law, and briefly state the relevance of the ILO-193
and the Agenda 2030.

In the third part of this presentation, we will further explain the possible interplay between the ILO-193 and the Agenda
2030, which we argue can help achieve the SDGs which in our opinion can be realized by collaboration between several
stakeholders including governments, cooperatives and the workers’ organizations at the national and international level.

We will give you an overview of the ICA, its guiding instrument and its areas of work in the second part of this
presentation.

Lastly, we will share the work undertaken by the ICA-EU Partnership on Cooperatives in Development (People
Centered Enterprises in Action or #Coops4Dev) in realizing evidence based advocacy intervention and policy dialogue
in its overall objective of strengthening the ICA as the global apex organizations of cooperatives worldwide, and its
specific objective of strengthening its membership to promote, develop and advocate the cooperative enterprise model
at national, regional and global levels on behalf of its members who are representatives of the billion cooperators
worldwide. The action is related to strengthening the ICA network in contributing to the reinforcement of regional and

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global structures of the ICA, facilitate the development of a common identity, supporting policy dialogue and advocacy
and promote greater impact of the cooperative movement worldwide on development.

We would like to take questions, feedback and suggestions at the end of our presentation.

C. Decoding

“Law” is mainly used in two senses -> abstract and concrete. In its abstract sense, the term law means the system of
law such as the law of the Philippines, law on defamation, law & justice etc. and is denoted by the latin word jus or the
law, while the term in its concrete sense means a statute, enactment, Ordinance or any other exercise of a legislative
authority and is denoted by the Latin word lex or a law.

Law is often considered as rules of human action, and as William Blackstone the celebrated English jurist views it, law
is a rule of action, whether it be animate or inanimate, rational or irrational, and thus helped qualify the laws of motion,
mechanics and if we may, the bat and ball game, Cricket, as laws! John Salmond, another legal scholar of English
origin who later on became a celebrated judge in New Zealand classified laws into 8 main categories: Imperative law,
physical or scientific laws, natural or moral laws, conventional law, customary law, practice or technical law,
International law and civil law. He further explained that Conventional laws were rules or system of rules agreed upon
by persons for the regulation of their conduct towards each other, and were applicable to voluntary organizations such
as clubs or cooperatives. Several legal scholars after Salmond agreed with this definition of conventional law, and
further added that this conventional law encompassed international law because its principles were expressly or
impliedly agreed upon by member States. Another important class of laws is Customary law that is named so for its
character of being prevalent in the community for time immemorial, even before States came into existence, and have
assumed the force of law in course of time. International law is the law of nations and is known to have been coined by
philosopher, jurist and social reformer Jeremy Bentham who is widely regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism.
International law consists of rules that regulate relations between States inter se. Lassa Francis Lawrence Oppenheim,
the renowned German jurist and father of the modern discipline of international law has defined international law as the
body of customary and conventional rules which are considered binding by civilized States in their intercourse with
each other. The Permanent Court of International Justice, the precursor to the International Court of Justice, had in
1927 defined international law as principles which are in force between all independent nations. The defender of the
idea of previously mentioned similarity between the conventional law (e.g. by laws of cooperatives) and international
law, John Salmond, believed international law as a species of conventional law and that, the former has its source in
international agreements. He further added that international law consisted of rules which the States had agreed to
observe in their dealings with one another. International agreements are usually of two kinds: express agreements as
contained in treaties and conventions and implied agreements as found in customary practices of States. Scholarly
writings and judicial decisions of national and even lower courts also form sources of international law as long as the
nations mutually accept them. It is important to note here that both the UN Agenda 2030 and the ILO-193 qualify as
important aspects of international law for, although a large number of experts including the ICJ stress on their “non-
binding” nature, such Resolutions and Recommendations quite often lead to the development of international law by
virtue of their practice by nations and their graduation into customary laws. Therefore both the Agenda 2030 and the
ILO-193 can be regarded as indirect sources of International law. We also anticipate the identity statement and its
inclusion in various national legislations, as well as the inclusion of the idea and practice of organizing shared interests

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in cooperatives in the list of UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage, as indicators of cooperative definition, values
and principles becoming part of International law.

“That’s one small step for a man, and a giant leap for mankind” is the remark made by the first humans on the Moon,
perhaps to assert the faith of our planet and its people on ‘progress’ and the universality of it! Ironically, the world at
the time was at the peak of political polarization in the form of a so called cold-war between the two military and
economic superpowers of the time, USA and the USSR.

At the same time, the world had also witnessed an evolving international community and its sovereign-yet-united
agenda for a peaceful world that had already precipitated as the United Nations Organization with the signing of the
San Francisco Declaration in 1945. During the beginning of the end of the 20 th century, the UN Conference on
Environment and Development (Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, 1992) promulgated action for nations toward building
a world that prioritized socio-economic and environmental needs of the future generation above development as such.
The 1987 report of the Commission on Environment and Development (Chaired by Hon’ble Gro Harlem Brundtland
who was also the key note speaker of the ICA Global Conference in 2017 in KL, Malaysia) articulated the concept of
sustainable development and the need for the nations to have a harmonious understanding of it in order to collectively
address the challenges of extreme poverty, malnutrition, lack of education and the plight of vulnerable sections of our
society including women. The report titled ‘Our Common Future’ was perhaps the first of its kind multi-stakeholder call
to accord importance to ecology while working on the economy. The report defined Sustainable Development as the
development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs.

The Millennium Summit of the UN adopted the 8 Millennium Development Goals and set the tone for sustainable
development in the 21st century that were meant to be achieved by 2015. The MDGs, of which our governments and
authorities were chief implementing partners, vitalized the civil society as well as the private sector by initiating an
environment that considered ‘sustainable development’ as a vehicle of achieving universal socio-economic progress
and environmental sustainability.

The Rio + 20 conference (Earth Summit 2012) was organized in Rio de Janeiro marking the 10 th anniversary of the 1st
Earth Summit in 1992, with the objectives of securing renewed political commitment for sustainable development,
assessing the progress and implementation gaps and addressing new and emerging challenges. 2016 marked the end
of the MDG campaign, and the beginning of the global multi-stakeholder partnership among representatives of nations,
civil society organizations, local authorities, private sector and the co-operative movement, in the form of the Agenda
2030 on Sustainable Development promulgated by the UN vide Resolution A/RES/70/1 of 25 September 2015 carrying
17 global goals. The Agenda lists 17 Global Goals and 169 Targets that are set to be achieved by the global community
by 2030 through partnership and cooperation under the new UN campaign titled ‘The Future We Want’.

The commission on Sustainable Development (that has now transformed into the High Level Political Forum on
Sustainable Development with the advent of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development) is now the main United
Nations platform on sustainable development and it has a central role in the follow-up and review of the implementation
of the Sustainable Development Goals.

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The importance of cooperatives as delivery vehicles for achieving ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ is recognized by
an array of important international instruments including the following:
- Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (2015) and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for
Development (2015) which have set a new paradigm for implementation through effective use of financial and
non-financial means, by placing domestic action and sound policies on the forefront;
- the Colombo Declaration on Youth(2014) which is the outcome document of the World Conference on Youth
2014, an event that marked the first-ever sitting together of UN member states and youth representatives
toward a jointly negotiated single outcome towards sustainable development;
- and the New European Consensus on Development (2017) which is the EU’s response to the 2030 Agenda
and is set to contribute to the achievements of the priorities of the EU Externa Action. In 2012 co-operatives
were formally recognized as important civil society actors by the EU, covering areas such as social inclusion
and economic empowerment.

Amidst the growing concern of the international community on the sustainable development concept, as well as its
increasing recognition of cooperatives as an important development-stakeholder, in March 2016, the ICA and the EU
signed a Framework Partnership Agreement to implement a multi country development project titled – Cooperatives in
Development (People Centered Businesses in Action). In addition to the information about this project in the beginning,
the project also aims to bring the cooperative model to the next level within international development policies and
programs, and is built around activities focused on increasing visibility, enhancing advocacy, sharing capacity building,
strengthening co-operative development networking, and supporting all these with evidence from exhaustive research.
Acting as partners, the regional and global offices of the ICA are driving the actions, in collaboration with members,
civil society organizations, international institutions and the EU.

Cooperatives create wealth for its members who engage in businesses as service users, producers, independent
business owners, consumers, and workers, not solely for the few who invest capital in investor-owned enterprises.
Cooperatives help counterbalance the massive growth of inequality between the world’s rich and poor; an issue that, if
not addressed, will have major economic, social, cultural, environmental, and political consequences. The International
Statement on the Cooperative Identity identifies ‘Concern for the Community’ as the 7th Cooperative Principle which in
its explanatory note states ‘Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies
approved by their members’. The ICA Congress in Tokyo in 1992 discussed the issue of sustainable development as
its main theme and passed a Declaration on the environment and Sustainable Development.

When the ICA celebrated its Centennial Congress in 1995 in Manchester, concern for the environment had reached
significant global level of awareness both within and outside the cooperative movement. The ICA Congress resolution
on sustainable human development reaffirmed its view that cooperatives should ensure that both their institutional
performance and their member education programmes give environmental issues high priority. The Congress also
adopted the Concern for Community Principle including environmental protection as a part of the ICA Statement on the
Cooperative Identity. This 7th Principle of working for “the sustainable development of their communities” also requires
cooperatives accept responsibility for making a contribution to tackling poverty and wealth inequality, not only between
developed and emerging economies, but also the growing wealth inequality in the local communities within which
cooperatives operate.

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Cooperatives also have a long history and tradition of facilitating the process of meeting social needs by delivering
services. Sectors such as healthcare, affordable housing, education, social services, integrating people who are socially
disadvantaged into work, and helping community development are a few that have seen successful cooperative
footprints. Cooperatives have often played a vital role in serving devastated or depopulating communities through
delivering services and encouraging and supporting mutual help in communities. Cooperatives also respond positively
to natural disasters, as demonstrated by the international response coordination by the ICA to the 2004 tsunami
(Japan), 2015 earthquake (Nepal), and several other natural disasters including the typhoons in the Philippines.

D. ILO Recommendation 193 Concerning the Promotion of Cooperatives

Mr. Juan Somavia, former ILO DG had pointed out that the Recommendation 193 was the only international policy
framework for cooperative development that had the added value of being adopted by governments, employers’
organizations and trade unions, and supported by relevant civil society organizations. Essentially, ILO-193 provides a
framework for governments to develop laws, administrative systems and policies that can enable the development and
the flourishing of cooperatives. As former ICA President Ivano Barbareni had pointed out in the Information Guide to
ILO-193, the Recommendation was not an end in itself but must be translated into action and that it was a tool towards
development.

Since its inception in 1919, the ILO has worked to promote cooperatives while representing its three main constituents
viz. governments, worker organizations and employers organizations. The mandate of the ILO is to promote social
justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights, pursuing its founding mission that labour peace is
essential to prosperity. The main aim of the ILO is to promote Decent Work which includes decent employment
opportunities, enhanced social protection, and dialogue on work related issues. Issues such as industrial relations, child
labour, youth employment, vocational training, employment creation, safety and health at work and cooperatives are
the main areas of work of the ILO. The theme of the 2019 International Day of Cooperatives is Decent Work which
complements SDG8, and this year the ILO marked its 100 years of creation while it also renewed its Memorandum of
Understanding with the ICA.

Standard Setting, which is the adoption of international labour standards such as conventions and recommendations
forms one of the main activities of the ILO. These international standards are negotiated on by all the constituents of
the ILO and are adopted by governments for further implementation in their national and sub-regional contexts. It is
important to note here that the ILO-193 that enshrines the Identity Statement, has provided a climate that encouraged
governments across the world to include the definition, values and principles of cooperatives in their national and supra-
national legislations. A classic example of such an inclusion is the Republic Act 9520 of the Philippines, that enshrines
the 7 cooperative principle as it is, in its Article 4. An example of supranational legislation that includes the statement
is the OHADA (Organization for the Harmonization of Business Laws in Africa) Uniform Act on Cooperatives, 2012 that
lists the principles in its Article 6.

International Labour Standards are legal instruments that are adopted by the International Labour Conference that
meets every year in Geneva. This year, the ILC adopted a Convention & a Recommendation on Eliminating Violence
and Harassment in the World of Work, as well as its Centennial Declaration on the Future of Work, which has
recognized cooperatives as a key actor to generate decent work, productive employment and improved living standards

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for all. It is important to note that a minimum number of countries must ratify an ILO convention before it comes into
force and becomes binding. Unlike Conventions, Recommendations are not required to be ratified by governments and
therefore remain in the realm of having a persuasive value. Having said that, member States have a certain procedural
obligations in respect of the Recommendations like a.) Submitting Recommendation texts to their national legislative
bodies, b.) Report the resulting action to the ILO and c.) Report to the ILO governing body the measures taken or to be
taken to give effect to the provisions of the Recommendation. Thus, it can be said that in spite of their persuasive value,
Recommendations do compel States to undertake mandatory actions.

In so far as the ILO-193 is concerned, the discussions at the ILC in June 2001 at its 89 th Session sowed the seeds for
a new international legal instrument for cooperatives, where after the second discussion at the 90 th Session of the ILC
in June 2002 facilitated the adoption of the ILO-193. The Recommendation lays strong emphasis on the promotion of
workers’ rights within cooperatives, and in particular ensures the protection of workers’ rights by referring to the need
to not set up cooperatives for the non-compliance of labour law. It urges governments to combat pseudo cooperatives
that violate workers’ rights and promotes the application of favorable measures as far as labour rights and international
standards are concerned.

The cornerstone of any modern day argument in favour of cooperatives’ contribution to the achievement of SDGs is
the 7th cooperative principle that in its explanatory note (part of the Identity Statement) states that Cooperatives work
for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members. Furthermore, section
4 (a) of the ILO-193 provides for the creation and development of income-generating activities and sustainable decent
employment (a reflection of SDG 8), and section 4(g) provides for measures to promote the potential of cooperatives
to contribute to sustainable human development. It further urges governments to promote gender equality in
cooperatives and in their work (a reflection of SDG 5), Promote education and training in cooperative principles and
practices at all appropriate levels of the national education and training systems (reflection of SDG 4), and urge
employers organizations to advise workers to form cooperatives to help them meet their basic needs and with the aim
to facilitate their access to basic goods and services (SDG 1, 2, 3). Overall the ILO-193 can be said to promote the
idea of cooperatives as institutions of peace and prosperity , and has urged various stakeholders at the national &
international level to partner in achieving its mandate (SDGs 16 & 17).

The main features of the ILO-193 that make it important for cooperatives to act as key actors in achieving the SDGs
are as follows (Excerpt from Information Guide to ILO-193 By Sterling Smith, Cooperative College UK, Second Revised
Edition 2014):

1. Universality – The standard includes developed as well as developing countries (Recommendation No. 127
(1966) was limited to developing countries), as it is recognized that cooperatives are important players in
economic and social life and in civil society. Cooperatives should be able to be active in all sectors of the
economy.

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 2. Self-sufficiency – Cooperatives work best where they are least dependent on public supervision and finance.
Governments can introduce support measures for the activities of cooperatives when they meet specific social
and public policy outcomes.

3. Identity – Cooperatives are organizations established and managed by working people for clear economic and
social purposes. Although the public authorities have the right and obligation to register and regulate any
business enterprise and organization, cooperatives should not be regulated to the status of parastatal entities.

4. Human Resources – Cooperatives require well trained members and elected executive officers to ensure the
best standards of internal management and a business capacity to compete in open economies.

5. Legal Framework – Cooperatives are entities that have or should be attributed legal personality. The law
should provide a favourable environment for the establishment and operation of cooperatives as peoples’
organizations. Cooperatives should be treated on equal terms with other forms of enterprise. Cooperative law
should be limited to regulating the structure of cooperatives only.

At the same time, the law should not be intended as a means of public utilization and administration. According to
Recommendation No.193 Paragraph 6 “[the] legal framework [should be] consistent with the nature and function of
cooperatives and guided by the cooperative values and principles […].”

6. Self-governance – Cooperatives are clearly defined in accordance with the definition arrived at by the
cooperative movement itself, namely as “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”.

7. Basic Values and Principles – Cooperatives are a unique form of business and social organization guided by
certain values and principles. These are best expressed by the Statement of Cooperative Identity of the
International Cooperative Alliance and should be duly recognized by the ILO Member States. These principles
include voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic participation,
autonomy and independence, education, training and information, cooperation among cooperatives and
concern for the community.

8. The role of employers’ organizations – To extend membership and provision of services to cooperatives
wishing to join.

9. The role of workers’ organizations – To assist cooperative employees to join trade unions; to assist trade union
members to establish cooperatives, and to participate in setting up cooperatives to create or maintain
employment; to promote productivity, equality of opportunity and rights of worker-members; and to undertake
education and training.

10. Cooperatives not to be used to undermine workers’ rights – Cooperatives should be good employers and
follow international labour standards. This point was not mentioned in Recommendation No. 127.

E. ICA-EU Framework Partnership on Cooperatives in Development: People Centerd Businesses in Action

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 The ICA, through its framework partnership agreement with the EU is undertaking an exhaustive Legal
Framework Analysis of laws affecting cooperatives with the help of its regional offices and a coordination office
in Brussels. My colleague Jeffry Moxom, who serves the ICA as its Research Officer will now explain the aim
, scope, outputs and outcomes of the exercise.

F. Concluding Remarks

Reaffirming the importance of the 7th Cooperative Principle on Concern for the Community, this presentation
in its conclusion will aim to draw the link between the ideas of sustainable development and the internationally
accepted agenda on Sustainable Development Goals therein, and the importance of the ILO 193, that as you
have seen and heard, promotes the notion of genuine cooperatives, a genuine partnership among
stakeholders to promote the idea and practice behind cooperatives and the international legal climate that
aims to secure the mentioned.

The 7th principle was added in 1995, before which, nothing really stopped cooperatives from working in favour
of their community. The explanatory note to the 7 th principle states that the concern for the community action
can be done so through policies approved by their (cooperative) members. The central idea behind the
voluntary nature of expressing a concern for the communities in which cooperatives operate is the fact that
cooperatives, by virtue of serving and importantly hearing their members’ needs and aspirations, will discuss
questions and attempt responses to matters that can be said to be contained in the sustainable development
concept, at least at the level of communities.

Prof. Hagen Henrÿ, Chairperson of the ICA Cooperative Law Committee in the Second Edition of the
Guidelines for Cooperative Legislation states that the ICA Statement on Cooperative Identity, the UN
Guidelines on Creating an Enabling Environment for Cooperatives and the ILO Recommendation that contain
the definition, values and principles form the core of the public international cooperative law, and that, this
legal system needs to be respected while drafting national and supranational legislations on cooperatives. By
virtue of these instruments, and the manner in which these were accepted and adopted by the international
community has continued to bind governments with the basic structure of these instruments i.e. the need and
the tools to promote the ICA Statement on the Cooperative Identity.

It can be said that a better environment for cooperatives to operate as per their universal identity, will lead to
a better society, especially in the context of reducing inequalities (SDG 10), affecting climate action (SDG 13)
and certainly in the areas of reducing poverty, the world of work and education. It is however imminent that
the while law starts playing an active role in development, and while one recognizes the need for respecting
cultural diversities, even in the context of cooperatives and the legislative provisions that govern them in
culturally different parts of the world, the confusion between “a law” and “the law” reaches a climax (Expression
used by H. Henry in Guidelines for Cooperative Legislation). It is here that one encounters the international
dimension of cooperative legislation, and the proposal that a harmonious application of the basic structure of
the ILO-193 i.e. the inclusion of ICA Statement on the Cooperative Identity could equip cooperatives with the
tools to create and sustain societies that are mindful, and work in the interest of its people.

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Cooperatives represent almost 1 billion individuals globally, who manage their cooperatives by their internal
rules or by-laws. These by laws, as we discussed before form part of conventional laws, that also encompass
the idea of international laws. This meeting of the basic concept of the smallest aspect of legislation (i.e. by
laws) and the overarching idea of international law, along with the presence of the core of public international
cooperative law, warrants cooperatives and its people, and their governments to partner and achieve the
various targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The ILO 193 in its part IV clearly lays out the need for employers and workers organizations, essentially part
of the economic sector that is held by private individuals to collaborate with cooperatives as they’re significant
in achieving the SDGs. Furthermore, the Recommendation in its part V, promotes active international
collaboration and cooperation, presumably with the aim of reducing inequalities among nations, and among
communities that are fast becoming the key actor in international diplomacy towards achieving peace and
prosperity.

Lastly, and most importantly, the Recommendation highlights the need for the adoption of special measures
to enable cooperatives as enterprises and organizations inspired by solidarity to respond to their members’
needs and the needs of the society, including those of disadvantaged groups to achieve social inclusion. The
acceptance of this tenet, and its applicability by virtue of partnership among governments, CSOs, cooperatives
and the private sector at large can enable a climate where groups of people could together put the larger
interest before private profits, thus realizing the phrase’s very manifestation i.e. Sustainable Development.

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