From Slovenia to Greece and Russia, the ICA had the chance to meet cooperative members from these countries and experienced the dynamism of the movement.
In early September, Director General Bruno Roelants participated in the International Conference on Cooperatives "Združimo se" addressing the involvement of young people in cooperatives, organized by INFOPEKA and CAAP Maribor, Slovenia. Roelants could share with the audience the long history of fruitful relationship between young people and cooperatives. Cooperative representatives from the Mondragon Corporation and the regional organization of CICOPA for Europe were present.
Later in Greece, Roelants opened the 2nd International Forum on Cooperative Law in Athens highlighting the importance to build an active group of people working on cooperative legislative issues at the international level and the role of the cooperative network of law experts. He also met ICA member Kapa network together with cooperative federations in different sectors that are working together to create an intersectoral organisation in Greece and shared expertise. “These are new forces that from the cooperative movement are seeking to improve the country situation”, has said the Director General of the ICA. The #coop4dev team presented the partnership’s global research on legal frameworks.
In November Roelants attended the 17th edition of the international conference in Moscow, Russia, entitled “Modern cooperatives in the system of SDGs.” He remembered how the 1980 ICA Congress in Moscow already ushered in the discussion on sustainable development and the commitment of cooperatives to practicing the SDGs long before they were launched.
Organised by research centres of cooperative universities with support of member Centrosoyuz, the conference put in light the international cooperative movement by welcoming representatives of CoopsEurope, Director Agnes Mathis participating to roundtable on education as source of sustainable development of cooperation, as well as Consumer Cooperatives Worldwide Secretary General Todor Ivanov. Centrosoyuz is a member of the International Cooperative Alliance since 1903.
