Cooperatives in the Arab World: Reaffirming their validity for local and regional development (executive summary)

The cooperative movement represents one of the largest membership-based civil society organizations in the world, bringing together more than 800 million people. In 2008, the largest 300 cooperatives were responsible for an aggregate turnover of 1.1 trillion USD. Cooperatives also provide over 100 million jobs around the world, 20 % more than multinational companies. Because of the growing importance of the role of cooperatives in development, the United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC) during its 64th Session on 18 December 2009. Taking this in mind and as a response to the Member States’ demands to promote cooperative entrepreneurship in the subregion, the ILO Regional Office decided to organize a Sub-Regional Knowledge-Sharing workshop on cooperatives in the Arab States. The jectives of the workshop will be to:

a) Provide an overview of the cooperative movement in the Arab States;

b) Raise awareness among ILO’s social partners about cooperatives;

c) Agree on practical ways to strengthen collaboration between cooperatives and social partners;

and

d) Take stock of key achievements and lessons learned and prepare a participatory action plan for cooperative development in the Arab States region.

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