International Day of Cooperatives

The cooperative world and our partners come together today to celebrate the International Day of Cooperatives (#CoopsDay), and there is plenty to be proud about! The widening inequality, increased job insecurity, and high unemployment levels – particularly among young people – the theme of the 2019 CoopsDay theme is “Cooperatives for Decent Work"(#Coops4DecentWork) was rightfully selected to showcase the cooperative model's contribution to the attainment of UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth.”

As people-oriented enterprises that base their economic activities on values, co-operatives play an important role in creating decent jobs and strengthening local communities socially and economically. This year is a particular milestone for consumer coops, as we also celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the Rochdale Pioneers, where our global family started its successful path through responsibility and commitment to working class people.

As cooperatives, we are responsible for providing 10% of the world's employment. Beyond these numbers, different studies have confirmed that – in comparison with employment in other sectors – cooperative jobs:

• tend to be more sustainable over time
• have a smaller wage gap between the lowest and highest earners, and
• are more evenly distributed between rural and urban areas.