Shared by a NEU staff researcher, this resource shares a website of the International Co-operative Alliance, a non-profit international association established in 1895 to advance the co-operative model. The Alliance is the apex organization for co-operatives worldwide, representing 284 co-operative federations and organizations across 95 countries (January ’15). Members of the Alliance are national level co-operative federations, individual co-operative organizations, and government offices concerned with co-operatives.
What is a co-operative? An autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.
The ICA works with global and regional governments and organizations to create the legislative environments that allow co-operatives to form and grow. In the Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade, the ICA has made available its global strategy for co-operatives to become the fastest growing form of enterprise by 2020.
