Welcome to our February newsletter, bringing cooperative updates from the ICA Global Office! There have been some brilliant events this month, and a number of important updates, publications and announcements, so read on to find out more…

On 2026 International Women’s Day (8 March), Xiomara Núñez de Céspedes (President, ICA Gender Equality Committee) shared a video message reaffirming the cooperative commitment “to work towards fairer, more inclusive and more equitable systems for all women and girls”. Today (9 March) she will be participating in the opening of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), the United Nations’ largest annual gathering focused on women’s rights and gender equality.

The ICA took part in the 64th session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development (CSocD64), highlighting how cooperative and SSE solutions can advance - and be resilient catalysts for - social development and social justice. On 5 February, ICA Director General, Jeroen Douglas, hosted a multistakeholder panel exploring financing options for development. On 6 February, the ICA organised an event looking at how the UN can use cooperative and SSE solutions to translate the Doha commitments and the IYC2025 legacy into concrete policies and programmes. Links to rewatch both events are in the articles below. This event took place under the ICA-EU Partnership (2024-2028) #coops4dev🌍

The IYC policy briefs published by the ICA and COPAC look at how cooperatives address and advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals, sharing concrete stories from every region. The latest briefs focus on SDG2 (which calls for the need to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture) and SDG7 (which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all).

During the 2025 International Year of Cooperatives, the ICA published its 2026-2030 strategic plan: Practice, Promote, Protect. On 10 February 2026, the ICA hosted the first in a series of sessions for members to explore the strategy. The event discussed how the strategy was developed, what it contains, and how members can use it to transform the cooperative movement in their own country. The ICA website has a page dedicated to the Strategic Plan that includes the public version of the document available in English, Spanish and French. The ICA encourages its members to make it available on their websites and promote it widely.

The International Cooperative Alliance Global office, ICA Africa, Cooperativas de las Américas, ICA Asia and Pacific and Cooperatives Europe officially launched the second phase of the Legal Framework Analysis (LFA) for Cooperatives during a public webinar on 25 February. A harmonised research and analysis initiative examining the state of cooperative legislation worldwide, the LFA is implemented across all ICA Regions as part of an activity co-funded under the ICA–EU Partnership #coops4dev🌍. 

The report A portrait of the CICOPA network: a data-driven overview of industrial and service cooperatives (2022–2023) marks CICOPA’s return to a comprehensive analysis of its network, following the last data collection published in 2017. Based on quantitative and secondary data gathered between 2022 and 2023, this report provides an updated picture of the scale, composition and recent trends of industrial and service cooperatives affiliated with CICOPA’s members.

The International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) has published its ICMIF Members: Key Statistics Report 2025, revealing that its members achieved a combined USD 238 billion in premium income in 2024. The data, compiled from 220 member organisations across 54 countries, also shows total assets of USD 1.75 trillion held across the membership. In total, ICMIF member companies employed more than 221,000 people worldwide and served over 234 million members and policyholders during 2024.

The 2026 International Cooperative Alliance General Assembly and associated events, co-hosted with Cooperatives of the Americas, will take place in September in Panama – a country with a rich history of cooperation. Today Panama (population: 4.51 million) has 479 cooperatives serving 213,165 members.

Join a thriving cohort of cooperative law and public policy professionals at the 2026 Cooperative Law Summer School in stunning Pula, Croatia this summer, from 23-28 August. This course builds links between cooperative law, Cooperative Identity (ICA, 1995), and sustainable development, and is delivered by renowned cooperative legal expert Hagen Henrÿ. There are a few early bird tickets available before prices increase, so book today!

The International Cooperative Banking Association (ICBA) is hosting its 2026 Symposium at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on 28 and 29 May 2026. Organised in cooperation with the ICA Global Office, this exclusive gathering will bring together leaders and practitioners from cooperative financial institutions across the globe.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DATE FOR THIS EVENT HAS CHANGED and will now take place on 28-29 May.

Following the successful launch of its Gender Equality & Diversity Focus Group last year, Cooperatives Europe has announced a new series of online meetings for 2026, enabling cooperative members and external experts to engage in open, forward-looking dialogue on key issues related to gender and diversity.

The first session, Cultivating Innovation: The Role of Women-Led Cooperatives, is on 12 March (10.00-11.30 CET).

On 3 February 2026, the cooperative movement of France marked the closing of the International Year of Cooperatives at an event hosted at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE). The event, titled Valeurs et puissances coopératives ! (Cooperatives’ values and strengths) brought together nearly 300 participants from all sectors of the diverse French cooperative movement, who heard how the sector plays a vital economic and social role in France.

On 16-17 February, ICA Director General Jeroen Douglas and President of Cooperatives Europe Giuseppe Guerini visited Mondragon’s headquarters in the Basque Region of Spain. Mondragon is the world’s largest worker cooperative group, and “a living ecosystem capable of providing cooperative responses to the challenges of 21st-century society”.

Moshi Co-operative University (MoCU) in Tanzania hosted the Fifth International Forum on Cooperative Law on 11–12 February 2026. The event brought together a distinguished international community of legal scholars, policymakers, and cooperative practitioners to examine the evolving role of cooperative law in advancing sustainable development.

The International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP), in partnership with the Department of Cooperative Business (DCB), convened the Regional Dialogue on “Cooperatives as Drivers of the Blue–Green Economy in the Pacific: Economic Empowerment and Food Security” from 28 to 30 January 2026, in Nadi, Fiji. The dialogue brought together senior government leaders, cooperative regulators, practitioners, and development partners from across the Pacific region, and was organised under the ICA–EU Financial Framework Partnership Agreement Phase II (FFPA II).

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Cultivating Innovation: The Role of Women-Led Cooperatives (Online, 12 March) 
NGO Commission on the Status of Women - parallel event (Online, 16 March)
ICMIF AI Summit (London, 19 May)
ICBA Symposium (New York, 28-29 May)
12th Technical Committee of the Africa Ministerial Cooperative Conference (TCAMCCO)  (Mozambique, 9-11 June)
International Day of Cooperatives (4 July 2026)
International Workshop on Cooperative Law (Croatia, 22 August 2026)
Cooperative Law Summer School (Croatia, 23-28 August)
ICA General Assembly and Global Conference (Panama, 15-17 September)
ICMIF Biennial Conference 2026 (Canada, 3-6 November)
CCR Europe Conference (Spain, 4-6 November)

The articles in this newsletter related to international development are co-funded by the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the International Cooperative Alliance and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

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