UN Expert Groups Meeting On Cooperative Ecosystem

By Snehal Singh , 01 August, 2023

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) has recently, in May 2023, organized a meeting of the expert groups regarding "Cooperatives in social development: supporting cooperatives as Sustainable and successful business enterprises." There were various objectives based on which the meeting was conducted, but having insights and recommendations for expanding the cooperative sector was the focus of discussions.

In 2020, with the highest turnover, the State Farm was the United States cooperative, and in the corresponding year, the mutual insurance produced an income of approx. USD 42 billion. Cooperatives generally own the most successful companies in the United States in two sectors – insurance and agriculture & food. Companies part of these sectors in the United States are state farm, liberty mutual, New York Life, and northwestern mutual. The mentioned names are all insurance companies adhering to the company's joint structure. According to the UN, cooperative movement has always been the main factor in boosting social development, and cooperatives as the best way to achieve sustainable development goals. Since 1992 the UN general assembly has consistently been adopting resolutions for cooperatives in the social development field. These resolutions help promote participation in the development of local communities, including all people, to reduce the rate of hunger and poverty.

The agricultural cooperatives top the list with a turnover of USD 17.9 billion from the Dairy Farmers of America in 2020. Based on a survey, France has the most extensive number of earning cooperatives to its name, forty-two, followed by the United States with thirty-eight and Germany with twenty-eight to its name. Since the distribution of wealth is more even and more jobs are created from the cooperatives, it helps in the growth of an economy. According to the data given by the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, producer cooperatives produced a revenue of USD 283 million in 2021. Around 12 percent of the world population is a member of at least one organization, per the survey.