It’s the International Year of Cooperatives!
This is only the second time the international declaration has been made by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. The first was in 2012.
The yearlong celebration seeks to promote cooperatives and raise awareness of their contributions to overall social and economic development.
Brought forward under the sponsorship of Mongolia and Kenya, the UN resolution states “cooperatives, in their various forms, promote the fullest possible participation in the economic and social development of local communities and all people.”
The theme of the year is “cooperatives build a better world,” underscoring the enduring global impact of cooperatives and the potential for the cooperative model to present solutions to today’s global challenges, according to the International Year of Cooperatives website.
Indeed, the impact of cooperatives in North Dakota endures, and the cooperative model continues to be used to solve the challenges of the day.
If you shop for groceries in Walsh County, for example, there’s a good chance you’ve benefitted from one of North Dakota’s youngest co-ops, the RAD Cooperative, which is helping small-town grocery stores stay viable and improving food access.
Rural North Dakota truly stands on the backs of early cooperative pioneers, who formed electric co-ops with $5 and a handshake, gave agrarians a fair shake and a fair price for their hard-earned crop through farmer-owned co-ops, and brought connectivity to the prairie through telephone, then broadband, cooperatives.
Across the world, cooperatives operate across all sectors of society and come in many forms. But a core set of seven cooperative principles and cooperative values set them apart. Those values include self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.
Each October, North Dakota Living celebrates National Co-op Month. But this October, we celebrate a little “extra” in the International Year of Cooperatives.
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Click to read the next story. What i learned at Farmers Union camp.
