In a world where capitalism needs a reset to responsible capitalism, and individualism is driving behavioural changes that damage the very fabric of society, humanity needs a white knight to help it change course and reset. I believe that white knight is the mutual and cooperative model, which encourages community sharing, democratic businesses, and brings values and purpose to everything we do.
Now, as if by divine intervention, the United Nations (UN) has decided to name 2025 as the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC), thanks to a petition from the Mongolian government in November 2023. What a gift to our business model. And now, there may be more to the divine intervention than I first thought because this week the Pope had discussions with business leaders about a project led by the Global Foundation (which I am part of) titled Shaping Global Governance, Climate and Nature. This is a follow up to his speech in January 2017 where he requested the business world to find ways of attaining a globalisation that is “cooperative”, and therefore positive, as opposed to the globalisation of indifference.
So now we have what I believe is the marketing gift of the decade for our sector, what are we going to do with it?
The apex body for cooperatives is the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) which is based in Brussels. The first major date to note is a soft launch of the IYC which the UN/ICA have announced will be held on 9 July 2024 in New York at the UN building between 10.00 – 12.30 (EST) and which will be broadcast live. I am on the ICA Board representing ICMIF and our members and will also be on the IYC planning committee of the ICA to help maximise the impact of the IYC for all cooperatives and mutuals. For context, the mutual insurance sector represents about 32% of the largest 300 global cooperative and mutual businesses. The other two largest sectors are agriculture and retail according to the World Cooperative Monitor 2023, which reports on the world’s largest cooperatives and mutuals, or groups of cooperatives and mutuals, including rankings of the Top 300 and sectoral analysis.
How do we deliver a successful IYC?
Let’s start by showing how cooperatives and mutuals bring the world together through cooperation to build a better global future that is more sustainable and inclusive. The ICA wants to showcase how cooperatives and mutuals are key partners to the UN in helping accelerate and deliver concrete actions to bring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to life.
The ICA has identified four areas against which it will measure the success of the IYC:
- Raising awareness of the cooperative and mutual business model
- Promoting the growth of cooperatives and mutuals
- Advocating for an enabling environment for the cooperative and mutual business model
- Promoting leadership and inspiring youth
The ICA will officially launch the IYC at the ICA Global Cooperative Conference, scheduled for 26-29 November 2024, in New Delhi (India). The ICA says it is also hoping to work with the UN on one of its key events in 2025, the Second World Summit for Social Development. The event will take place just before the UN General Assembly and we will focus on showcasing the cooperative and mutual business model, its business leaders, and how we are helping deliver on the SDGs. Outside of these events, the ICA sectoral, regional and national apex cooperative organisations are free to organise whatever they want in order to maximise the benefits from the UN IYC.
What can the global ICMIF network do to leverage the IYC?
First, in terms of raising awareness of our model, we could use this year to talk to our national governments about the value that cooperative and mutual businesses bring to society through our purpose-led model that can solve many of the big challenges faced by governments and society. This will raise awareness and, if needed, hopefully enable a better environment for our sector to thrive. This can be done with other insurance mutuals/cooperatives or through your apex national cooperative body.
In the UK, the Labour party recently stated in its election manifesto that it wants to double the size of the cooperative and mutual sector in the next five years. By 5 July we will, as most expect, know if Labour will form the next UK Government. What a gift that would be to the UK. Imagine if other countries managed to get a similar manifesto pledge from their governments, what a legacy that would be for the IYC.
Second, of course, governments will need help to achieve this goal of doubling the sector in size, which is where initiatives like the Coop Exchange, which will soft launch a marketplace for investment in cooperative and mutual businesses on 12 July 2024 in Malta, can help. The initiative is supported by ICMIF and some of our members. The Coop Exchange will open for business officially in Quarter 1, 2025, and will eventually be available for all cooperatives and mutuals across the world to raise capital. This could greatly assist in doubling the size of our sector globally as well as nationally.
Advocating for a better enabling environment for cooperative and mutual insurers is something we at ICMIF have had some success in. We have helped to enable new legislation that means companies can start to offer mutual insurance in countries like China, Estonia and Romania over the last few years. Building on this, the partnership we have with the UNDP is working on advocating for mutual insurance in some of the 40% of countries where there is currently no mutual insurance law.
Third, promoting great leadership in our members’ businesses is a cornerstone of our services and ICMIF works hard to play its part in this through a number of our services. This includes, the ICMIF Advanced Management Course that is now in its 25th year. The many ICMIF members that have sent their future leaders on this leadership course are now reaping the rewards in their senior management teams. For those not able to make the trip to Manchester we have also launched the on-demand course Mutual Leadership: Adapting to a Complex World. Our Young Leaders Forum was launched several years ago and is going from strength to strength with virtual meetings scheduled across the year and we look forward to welcoming 50+ future leaders who have been chosen by their organisation to attend the ICMIF Biennial Conference this year as part of our Young Leaders Programme.
Lastly, I should mention the great work that ICMIF members are doing to embed the SDGs in their strategy. Over 77% of the members that responded to our 2023 Sustainable Investment Survey, confirmed that they now publish their impact on the SDGs in their annual reports. This commitment to measuring their impact grows stronger each year as it is a business imperative for purpose-led businesses such as the ICMIF members.
We have also co-developed the ICMIF-calibrated Insurance SDG Calculator with Swiss Re and 25 ICMIF members, and together we have built a unique model that quantifies the impact of the SDGs on insurance mutuals and cooperatives. This world-leading initiative was launched at our 2022 Conference in Rome and, in 2023, over 20 ICMIF members used the tool to obtain an SDG score for their organisation which therefore enabled ICMIF to set a benchmark for our industry. We are currently working on the next stage of the Calculator that will enable ICMIF members to measure their impact, analyse their risks and optimise their business decisions as well as identifying new business opportunities. This is already resulting in profitable growth with purpose for our members. What’s not to like about that?
Our recently launched Brand and Marketing Forum will be discussing with members how we can communicate our successes and maximise the benefits of this exciting year. The next meeting will be on 10 July. Please contact [email protected] to learn more about the forum.
I have been saying for a while now that our business model is right for the modern world and should be the dominate business model to help solve the challenges we all face and which are so well outlined in the 17 SDGs. We now have a platform in order to champion what we do. It’s up to us to use it.
If you want to know more about the International Year of Cooperatives 2025 and/or get involved, please contact me.
