On October 1, Cooperatives of the Americas held its Board of Directors meeting in Washington, DC, with the participation of representatives from the 21 member countries. The session was held in a hybrid format, combining the in-person participation of delegates at the headquarters of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) with virtual participation.
At this meeting, the regional director Danilo Salerno presented the strategic and budgetary planning of the regional office for the coming year, and announced the set of key actions that he has jointly developed with the allies of the international organizations present in the region for the International Year of Cooperatives 2025.
The session began with welcome remarks. the new president of Cooperatives of the Americas, José Alves de Sousa Neto, who assumed the position due to the resignation for personal reasons of Dr. Graciela Fernández Quintas, who also addressed the Council sharing a message of unity and recognition of the teamwork that has led to transmitting the American identity of cooperativism on the global stage.
Strategic planning and budget 2025
At this meeting, the regional director presented the progress made for the construction of the new strategic plan 2024-2028, highlighting the definition of 12 accelerator products, which seek to generate key actions to achieve the strategic objectives of Cooperative Identity, Integration, Intercooperation and Alignment to the SDGsThis has been a process of joint construction, which has included representation from the regional cooperative movement through participation in activities, workshops and surveys.
In addition to this strategic planning, the Regional Office's budget for 2025 was validated.
Preparations for 2025, the International Year of Cooperatives
With the United Nations declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC), there is a global call to highlight the role of cooperatives as catalysts for development, which is why the Action Plan of Cooperatives of the Americas for the IYC was presented to the Board of Directors.
This plan takes into account actions of different kinds, where the focus is on knowledge management and research, through the launch of a call for research papers that will allow us to understand the transformation of the cooperative movement between the last International Year 2012 and this new cooperative year. The research is part of the Coops4dev Project.
In addition, advocacy actions are proposed through the creation of a Regional Committee of allied parties for the coordination, promotion and celebration of the “2025 UN International Year of Cooperatives” in the Region of the Americas, which will be made up of organizations that are part of the United Nations system, national and local governments, as well as other civil society organizations that are prominent in promoting the cooperative sector.
Finally, actions related to special events and activities that are planned to be organized during the next year and that will highlight the value of cooperatives were presented.
New members of the Executive Committee
Taking into account the existence of two vacant positions in the Executive Committee, during this session the election of new members was generated, being composed as follows: José Alves de Sousa Neto, president; Carla Decker, vice president first; Xiomara Nunez de Cespedes, vice president second; Ricardo Lopez, sSecretary; and Miguel Castedo, Carlos Acero and José Francisco Ramírez as members.
This Board of Directors meeting marks the starting point for an exciting year, which presents the opportunity to promote the cooperative movement in the region and highlight how cooperatives build a better world.
