Upcoming event: Cooperatives in Culture for Diversity, Cultural Rights and Decent Work
Information Note
ICA – UNESCO MONDIACULT 2025 – Side Event
UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development
Cooperatives in Culture for Diversity, Cultural Rights and Decent Work
26 September 2025 | 15h00 – 18h00 CEST
Hybrid event organized in cooperation with CICOPA and ASETT and hosted from Abacus Cooperative
at Casa Abacus Carrer del Peu de la Creu, 4, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, Spain
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), together with CICOPA, Abacus cooperaOve, and the Arizmendiarrieta Social Economy Think Tank (ASETT), is pleased to announce a special side event during UNESCO MONDIACULT UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development in Barcelona, Spain. The side event will be a prelude to the wider advocacy towards positioning cooperatives in the global discussions and programmes that present culture as an indivisible aspect of sustainable development and bolster the work of the ICA Working Group on Cooperative Cultural Heritage.
This session will spotlight cooperatives as dynamic cultural actors and indispensable partners in building a just, inclusive, and sustainable future. With over one billion members and around 3 million cooperatives worldwide, cooperaOves represent one of the world’s most deeply rooted and socially embedded organizaOonal forms, anchored in seven principles that integrate economic, social, and cultural imperatives. The proclamaOon of 2025 as the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives, perhaps the only such recognition extended to an enterprise-form, affirms the position of cooperative enterprises as unique, democratic and people centred platforms of entrepreneurship that can deliver on the sustainability promise the internaOonal community has
given upon itself since 1970s.
Key themes will include:
> Cooperatives as innovative, equitable, and rights-based models in the cultural and creative industries, ensuring diversity of voices and ownership.
> Education as a cornerstone of cooperative identity, advancing cultural literacy, democratic participation, diversity, and lifelong learning.
> The ICA’s global initiative to map cooperative heritage sites as living expressions of cultural identity, diversity, and resilience across generations.
REGISTER HERE FOR ONLINE ATTENDANCE
