ICA unveils plan to guide co-ops into their strongest growth phase

Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade launched at Co-operatives United

Manchester, United Kingdom. 31 October, 2012; The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) today outlined an ambitious strategy to make co-operatives the fastest growing business model by the end of the decade.

“We want to see co-operatives rise to the top of global business as the fastest growing business model by 2020,” said Charles Gould, Director-General of the ICA. “Actors on the global economic stage are seeking answers to pressing financial and social problems and this model provides many of the solutions they seek.”

The co-operative decade strategy not only aims to make co-operatives the fastest growing form of business but also seeks to make co-operatives the acknowledged leader in environmental, social and economic sustainability.

President of the ICA, Dame Pauline Green, said today was a pivotal moment in the history of the co-operative sector. “This international year has seen the global co-operative movement come together in a way which was previously unimaginable. Now our challenge is to build on this hard work in a way which garners results. We now are in a position to cement our business model in markets worldwide.”  

The blueprint aims to take co-operatives to a position of being the preferred model by people worldwide.

Dame Pauline and Mr Gould called upon all sectors and members of the co-operative movement to not only rally behind the co-operative decade but to pick up the strategy and develop its own campaigns to further that strategy.

“This is an ambitious plan which will only work with the collaboration and support of the entire, global co-operative movement,” said Dame Pauline, who was a member of the Planning World Group which advised on the drawing up of the blueprint.

Read the Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade in English, French and Spanish