The event was held just days after cooperators around the world celebrated the International Day of Cooperatives, a day that the UN annually designates to unite the world’s 1 billion co-op members in envisioning a better future powered by cooperation.  

NCBA CLUSA president and CEO Doug O’Brien joined co-op executives, advocates and thought leaders who spoke at the soft launch on July 9, helping set the stage for the second International Year of Cooperatives. The UN first recognized co-ops as key drivers of sustainable socio-economic development in 2012. Leading up to IYC2025, the UN is again elevating the role co-ops play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals—including zero hunger, gender equality, and affordable and clean energy—offer a blueprint for peace and prosperity by 2030. But with only 17 percent of the SDGs on track for completion in the next six years, there is an urgent need for bold action.  

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A focal point for co-op awareness and advocacy 

Indeed, co-ops are a “necessity” as people, businesses, communities and governments navigate the “multiple crises” that punctuate today’s context, O’Brien said. “The International Year of Cooperatives provides a focal point to increase the awareness of and advocacy for cooperatives,” he said, adding that NCBA CLUSA will work closely with the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and Cooperatives of the Americas to advance “a common narrative of how co-ops build a better world for all in 2025 and beyond.” NCBA CLUSA is a proud and active member of both organizations. 

In the coming months, NCBA CLUSA will focus on collecting the data and stories the co-op movement needs to advocate for a better enabling environment in which cooperatives can grow and thrive. The association will distill this information into a toolkit that co-op members and stakeholders can customize to tell their own co-op stories.  

“Co-ops are most compelling for their impact on people, businesses and communities around the world,” O’Brien said. “So we’re partnering with the DotCoop platform Stories.coop to bring together the stories of how people use cooperatives to truly build a better world.”  

Share your co-op story    See photos from last week’s soft launch

“In November, you’ll hear much more about a co-op directory and map that will lift up where cooperatives are around the world so that we can better connect,” O’Brien said, referring to the ICA’s Global Cooperative Conference in New Delhi from November 25-30, 2024. Held in India for the first time in the event’s 130-year history—home to a quarter of the world’s cooperators—the conference will mark the official launch of the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives.  

Connecting local co-ops to a global movement

Representing U.S. cooperatives at last week’s event with O’Brien were Esteban Kelly, chair of NCBA CLUSA’s Board of Directors and Executive Director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives; Erbin Crowell, Executive Director of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association; Carla Decker, CEO of SkyPoint Federal Credit Union; Casey Fannon, CEO of National Cooperative Bank; LaDonna Sanders Redmond, Facilitator and Intercultural Development Trainer at Columinate; NCBA CLUSA Executive Vice President and CFO Val Roach; and Debbie Wege, Cooperative Community Advocate at BECU. Crowell, Decker, Kelly, Sanders Redmond and Wege are also members of NCBA CLUSA’s Board of Directors.  

“Next year’s International Year of Cooperatives offers an incredible opportunity to amplify the impact and potential co-ops have around the world and right here in the U.S.,” NCBA CLUSA Board Chair Kelly said. “Some of the greatest untapped potential here is in this country’s fastest-growing sector—worker cooperatives. 

Erbin Crowell, who shares Kelly’s vision of a thriving cooperative economy, amplified the role a healthy, just and sustainable food system plays. “Our business model is rooted in community, empowering people to work together to make positive change,” he said. “The International Year of Cooperatives will be a powerful opportunity to tell our story to consumers, policymakers and young people interested in building a better future for everyone. 

“It was such an honor to represent NCBA CLUSA at the UN,” Crowell added. “Our food co-ops have a profound impact in our local communities, but we often forget how important the broader cooperative movement is internationally.”   

IYC2025 will provide the perfect moment for cooperatives in the U.S. to understand how their work dovetails with the efforts of an estimated 3 million other co-ops around the world and connect with that broader movement to deepen awareness of and advocacy for co-ops.  

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