On February 10 and 11, a technical work and methodological reflection day was held in San José, Costa Rica, aimed at strengthening the Cooperative Social Balance (BSCoop).
This meeting is part of the process of reviewing and updating the model, defined as a priority line in the 2024–2028 Regional Strategic Plan of Cooperatives of the Americas, approved after the VI Cooperative Summit.
The forum brought together specialists from academia, international organizations, and the regional cooperative movement itself. This diversity of profiles allowed for the integration of technical, academic, and operational perspectives, with the aim of identifying strengths, critical issues, and opportunities for improvement in the renewal of BSCoop.
They were part of the space:
• Liliana González, Auditor of the Center for Action, Development and Research in Cooperatives and Mutuals (CADIC), Argentina.
• Juan Carlos San Bartolomé, Auditor of the Center for Action, Development and Research in Cooperatives and Mutuals (CADIC), Argentina.
• Ariel Torres, advisor to the Paraguayan Confederation of Cooperatives, Paraguay.
• Juan Fernando Álvarez Rodríguez, academic at the Pontifical Javeriana University, Colombia.
• Tatiana Barriga, Responsible for Social Balance Management at the National Police Cooperative, Ecuador.
• Aitziber Mugarra, professor and researcher at the University of Deusto, who coordinated the design process of the Cooperative Social Balance in the 1990s for Cooperatives of the Americas.
• Hyungsik Eum, technical officer of the Cooperatives Unit of the International Labour Organization – ILO in Geneva, Switzerland.
• Rodrigo Mogrovejo, specialist in Business Development, Vocational Training and Just Transition at the ILO Office for Central America, Haiti, Panama and the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica.
During the opening, Danilo Salerno, Regional Director of Cooperatives of the Americas, emphasized that analyzing and strengthening the Cooperative Social Balance Sheet is a mandate of the Regional Strategic Plan. He also underscored the importance of aligning this tool with the progress made by the ILO and ECLAC in measuring the values and contributions of the social economy.
In this sense, the strengthening of BSCoop does not only respond to a technical update, but to a strategic logic aimed at consolidating evidence that, internally, contributes to the strengthening of cooperative organizations and, externally, allows influence on public policies, dialogue with multilateral organizations and positioning cooperativism as a key actor in sustainable development.
This workshop reaffirms the commitment of Cooperatives of the Americas to strengthen the institutional capacities of the movement and consolidate strategic tools that highlight, with data and evidence, the cooperative contribution to the sustainable development of the region, within the framework of the project Coops4Dev.
