Together with leaders and representatives of organizations that make up the Regional Committee of Allied Parties, the calendar of events for 2025 was presented in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
"There are no borders to the impact of cooperativism. The union of people, organizations and countries guided by values and principles has the power to transform the world," said the president of Cooperatives of the Americas, José Alves, at the opening of the conference.
In this spirit, a series of panels were held to assess the challenges and power of the cooperative movement in the region and in the world in this new International Year of Cooperatives proclaimed by the United Nations.
The ICA President, Ariel Guarco, also spoke at the opening: “200 years ago we accepted that the world could not endure if we did not take care of our Common Home and if we did not put people at the centre of our economies.”
The welcome was given by Martín Fernández Aizcorbe, outgoing president of the National Institute of Cooperatives of Uruguay and head of the Network of Public Organizations for Cooperative Promotion: "In a changing world, we are in a position to provide certainty based on cooperative principles and values."
Representing the host country's government, the Vice President, Beatriz Argimón, and the Undersecretary of Labor, Daniel Pérez, welcomed the meeting and the launch of the regional agenda. Also participating were the Regional Director of UN Women, María Noel Vaeza; the Regional Director of ILO Americas, Ana Virginia Moreira Gómez; Pablo Ruiz Hiebra, from UN Uruguay; Natalia Genta, from ECLAC; and Benjamín Blanco, from Aladi.
The co-presidents of the Regional Committee of the allied parties, Paula Narváez Ojeda and Mario Lubetkin, made outstanding interventions, with strong and compelling content: according to the Ambassador of Chile to the United Nations and former President of the UN ECOSOC, “We are living in a critical moment, marked by increasing inequalities. We must urgently move towards fairer and more sustainable economic models, making an impact so that cooperatives appear in the draft texts of the main United Nations events such as Beijing+30, the World Social Forum and the Addis+10 Conference on financing development.”
The Deputy Director General of FAO and Foreign Minister of the incoming government of Uruguay, Mario Lubetkin. “It is time to strengthen the presence of cooperatives in the regional and global agenda through public policies. Multilateralism and international cooperation are tools to affirm the values and launch messages and actions that the world needs,” said the international public servant with such an outstanding career and experience.
2025 Agenda
In the second part of the day, the director of Cooperatives of the Americas, Danilo Salerno, presented the calendar with the main regional meetings, in which topics such as productivity, territorial development, finance, education and the care economy will be addressed, from May to November.
The complete agenda at the regional level and by country, along with the presentation of the Regional Committee of the Year of Cooperatives and messages from leaders from across the region, can be found on the website aic2025americas.coop
Tribute to Graciela Fernandez
The day had an emotional moment when a tribute was paid to the Uruguayan leader Graciela Fernández, who presided over Cooperativas de las Américas for six years, until her resignation for personal reasons in September of last year, and who will soon assume the presidency of Inacoop.
Journey since 2012
Finally, the meeting included the presentation of comparative research on the evolution of American cooperativism between 2012 - also declared by the UN as the International Year of Cooperatives - and 2025, tools at the service of members and public institutes to reduce in an environment of public policies, financial tools and alliances to continue generating awareness about the cooperative model of development for the common good and the sustainable development of people and communities.
