FAO statement at the Commission for Social Development – Corporations, Cooperatives and the 2030 Agenda

Side event at the Commission for Social Development  organized by UN DESA, in collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the United Nations and the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives  (COPAC)

Ladies and gentlemen,

FAO considers cooperatives and corporations as key partners in sustainable development. They are a source of employment and income, and their practices can influence economic, social and environmental outcomes. FAO is committed to working with them.

Acting on this, in 2021, FAO adopted a new strategy for private sector engagement, to scale up our work with businesses in a principled, transparent and impactful way. The implementation of the strategy is supported by the FAO CONNECT Portal, a one-stop-shop for our private sector engagement, ensuring transparency in this work, identifying our formal partners, sharing stories on the impact of collaboration, and providing a guide for companies interested in working with FAO.

Cooperatives are also part of the private sector. But they are so much more. That is why our commitment to support them, working directly with cooperatives, with governments, as part of COPAC, partnering with the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), and within the framework of the UN Decade of Family Farming.

I want to highlight the transformative potential of cooperatives, especially in rural communities, where over eighty percent of the global population living in extreme poverty live, their importance for family farming and for sustainable agrifood systems. Cooperatives enable access by family farmers to a variety of services – including financial services, extension and training, technologies, processing and facilities to add value to production. They give small-scale producers greater bargaining power to purchase inputs and market their products. Cooperatives empower their members, engaging them democratically in internal governance and beyond, giving family farmers a voice and a seat in decision-making processes they otherwise would be absent from. The cooperative ethos, in that they do not seek only profit, brings additional benefits to members and the communities they are nested in, including the possibility of more equitable growth.

And more often than not, they achieve these multiple goals simultaneously. Let me share two examples that illustrate this potential.

The Toudarte cooperative in Morocco, for example, is formed by around 100 Berber women that produce, process, sell locally and export argan oil for cosmetic and culinary use. In doing so, Toudarte creates jobs, generates income, empowers its women members and brings benefits to the wider community, including construction of roads, a social space, a child-care center, literacy classes and health services.

In another example, the Association of Organized Women of Biolley, ASOMOBI, has around 40 members that live in communities near the international park La Amistad. ASOMOBI produces and sells coffee and provides lodging, meals and sustainable rural tourism experiences to visitors. In doing so, ASOMOBI generates income, empowers its women members and contributes to reducing rural poverty and inequality.

Finally, I want to stress the importance of creating an enabling environment to help cooperatives reach their full potential, maximizing benefits to their members and communities, increasing their inclusion in value chains and improving links between corporations and cooperatives. As an example of how FAO supports this, we are currently supporting the Latin America and Caribbean Parliament (PARLATINO) in their efforts to draft a Model Law on Agrifood Cooperatives for the region.

With these points, I hope to have illustrated the importance of corporations and cooperatives to sustainable development, the transformative potential of cooperatives in rural communities, their importance to family farming, and FAO’s commitment to working together to reach the future we want.

Thank you.

Watch this video to learn more about how family farming cooperatives contribute to ensuring inclusive and sustainable agrifood systems