Out of Poverty

Global Co-operative Campaign

Against Poverty

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How to contribute

Campaign logos and posters for downloading

With almost half of the world's population living on less than 2 dollars a day and 535 million working women and men surviving on 1 dollar a day or less, the need to reach out to the poorest of the poor is still imperative.

The International Labour Organisation and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) have joined forces to enable poor people to co-operate out of poverty through a Global Co-operative Campaign Against Poverty. Co-operating Out of Poverty is a call to action to the world co-operative movement to join hands in fighting poverty. It aims to strengthen the capacity of co-operatives to make a significant contribution to poverty reduction by increasing their role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals particularly with regard to reducing poverty by half by the year 2015.

Summary of the Global Co-operative Campaign Against Poverty (pdf)

Background

The Co-operative Branch of the International Labour Office (ILO) and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) have focused their collaboration on how to tap the potential of co-operatives for poverty reduction. In February 2004, the ICA and the ILO signed a Memorandum of Understanding and a "Common Co-operative Agenda" in which poverty reduction features prominently. The Campaign is a direct output from this.

Objectives

Overall the Campaign will highlight the role and contribution of co-operatives in poverty reduction by creating awareness as well as drawing attention to successful intiatives on the ground.

It aims specifically to:

create a conducive environment for co-operative development by informing and sensitizing policy makers in governments and international institutions
deal with the needs of the poor through an approach that focuses on their opportunities, and by stimulating equitable growth and empowerment through self-help and mutual assistance based upon co-operative principles
promote the co-operative form of enterprise to communities where self-help initiatives can be effective means for rebuilding their communities after natural disasters, conflict situations of all types
support peace and conflict resolution through co-operative enterprise
enlist the support of other organisations with a view to strengthening existing and forging new partnerships for joint action.

How to contribute in the Campaign

The main activity to be undertaken by participating organisations is helping to promote the development of sustainable co-operative business enterprises and create awareness on the significant contribution of co-operatives to poverty reduction.

promote and implement co-operative development activities
promote and initiate movement to movement linkages (sharing of knowledge and experience, promote trade links between co-operatives, etc)
produce, collect and disseminate knowledge on successful intiatives and good practice - target communities, co-operative members, decision-makers within governments, etc)
use the Campaign logo to draw attention and educate those with whom you correspond (website links, letters, email, publications)

Last updated:29 April 2007