The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse) last week published the 7th World Cooperative Monitor. The report paints a picture of the scale and strength of the global cooperative movement and reports on the world’s largest cooperative and mutuals, providing a ranking of the Top 300 and sectoral analysis based on 2016 financial data.
The 2018 World Cooperative Monitor collected data from 2,575 entities (around 200 more than last year) from eight sectors of economic activity, 1,157 of which had a turnover of more than $100 million USD. The Top 300 cooperatives and mutuals report a total turnover of over $2 trillion USD.
The world’s top 300 cooperatives and mutuals operate in different sectors: insurance (32 percent), agriculture (35 percent), wholesale and retail trade (19 percent), banking and financial services (8 percent), industry and utilities (2 percent), health, education and social care (2 percent) and other services (2 percent).
This year’s results show the largest cooperatives and mutuals performing well, with only slight variations to the top positions across the sectors. In the Top 300 ranking based on turnover, Groupe Crédit Agricole and Groupe BPCE, both based in France, appear first and second respectively, with Germany’s BVR ranking third. And in the Top 300 based on the ratio of turnover over gross domestic product (GDP) per capita ranking, reintroduced this year, IFFCO from India holds the top position.
New this year is a specific feature of the report: a special analysis of the Top 300 and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This new addition to the World Cooperative Monitor report takes a look at how the largest cooperatives and mutuals in the world are moving towards achieving the SDGs, examining documents reported in the UN Global Compact project and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
“We are proud to find many examples of cooperatives and mutuals developing projects and initiatives to ensure decent work, protect the environment, and much more to meet the SDGs,” said Bruno Roelants, Director-General of the Alliance. Featured within this section of the report are stories about the actions taken by Grupo Sancor Seguros (Argentina), Metsä Group (Finland) and Sicredi (Brazil)—three of the Top 300—to meet those goals.
Along with the analysis and stories in this year’s report is an interview with a global leaders in SDG development, adoption and promotion—Enrico Giovannini, co-chair of the UN Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development.
“Cooperative organizations and the actors of the social economy are increasingly an important junction for bringing institutions, civil society and businesses closer together,” said Gianluca Salvatori, Euricse Secretary General. “To address societal problems we need to continue to build cooperation through the framework and tools of sustainable development.”
The World Cooperative Monitor is a project designed to collect robust economic, organizational and social data about cooperatives, cooperative groups, mutuals and non-cooperative organizations controlled by cooperatives worldwide. 2018 marks the seventh edition of the annual research report produced by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) with the scientific and technical support of the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse). The analysis in this edition is based on data from 2016 and presents rankings of the Top 300 organizations as well as sector-specific data. Two primary rankings are presented, the first based on turnover in USD and the second based on turnover over GDP per capita.