CoopsDay 2025: A Call from CICOPA President Iñigo Albizuri to Embrace Cooperation for a Sustainable and Inclusive Future

4 July 2025

As we mark the International Day of Cooperatives (CoopsDay) tomorrow, 5 July 2025, Iñigo Albizuri, President of CICOPA – the international organization representing cooperatives in industry and services – calls on the world to recognize and reinforce the cooperative model as a vital engine of inclusion, sustainability, and shared prosperity.

This year’s CoopsDay holds particular significance as it takes place during the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives 2025, with the theme “Cooperatives Build a Better World”. It is a powerful reminder that when people come together through cooperative enterprises, they create a lasting impact for communities, for workers, and for the planet.

“In a world facing urgent and interconnected crises, from climate change, inequalities, wars to instability in the world of work, cooperatives offer more than a vision. We offer proven, democratic, and people-centred solutions that are already transforming lives every day,” said Iñigo Albizuri.

Worker and social cooperatives, represented by CICOPA, are at the heart of these transformations. They prioritize decent work, equitable decision-making, and long-term value creation over short-term profits.

“Cooperatives aren’t theoretical alternatives, they are real-world drivers of economic democracy” Albizuri continued. “We see this in the 10% of the global workforce employed by cooperatives, in the resilience shown by worker cooperativess during economic downturns, and in our commitment to bringing marginalised voices to the centre of the economy.”

As highlighted in the 2023 UN Secretary-General’s Report on Cooperatives in Social Development and reaffirmed in António Guterres’ message for the International Year of Cooperatives, cooperatives are tackling the world’s toughest challenges: from poverty and exclusion to food security and climate change, with inclusive and locally rooted solutions.

“This CoopsDay, we urge policymakers, institutions, and citizens everywhere: recognize, support, and invest in cooperatives” said Albizuri. “The path to a better world is not only possible, it’s already being built by cooperators, every day, in every sector, in every region.”

Let us celebrate this day not only with words, but with a renewed commitment to cooperation as a guiding principle for the future we all share. The upcoming World Social Summit in Doha presents a unique opportunity to reinforce this commitment on a global stage. The active presence of cooperatives at the Summit is crucial to ensure that people-centred, democratic, and sustainable models like ours are placed at the heart of global social and economic policymaking.