The United Nations' (UN) International Day of Cooperatives is observed on the first Saturday of July each year. The day's goals, amongst others, are to strengthen and extend partnerships between the international cooperative movements and other supporting organizations including governments. Each year there is a different theme. This year's theme is “Rebuild better together”.
2022 theme is “Rebuild better together” for full details see https://www.un.org/en/observances/cooperatives-day
Past themes
2020 CLIMATE CHANGE:
No country is immune from it. Greenhouse gas emissions are more than 50 percent higher than it was in 1990, and with the recent Corvid 19 pandemic when the use cars and planes were so radically reduced we saw polution and CO2 levels drop dramatically. We may be looking forward to going back to "normal" but global warming is causing long-lasting changes to our climate system which threatens irreversible consequences if we do not act and now we have the proof.
Cooperatives for Climate Action was chosen as this year's theme to address this, and to support Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on Climate Action. Climate change severely impacts people’s livelihoods around the world, especially the most disadvantaged groups such as small-scale farmers, women, youth, indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, who have to cope with extreme natural disasters and degradation of natural resources. This year we will focus on the contribution of cooperatives to combating climate change.
Cooperatives are important in the world's economic and social development. Based as on the principle of cooperation, cooperatives help create new ethics and values in business and economics. In 1895 ICA was formed and since 1927 it observes the first Saturday of July as International Cooperative Day. In 1994 the United Nations recognized and reaffirmed that cooperatives were vital in the world's economic, social and cultural development. However two years earlier – on December 16, 1992 – the UN General Assembly proclaimed the first Saturday of July 1995 as the International Day of Cooperatives, marking the centenary of ICA's establishment.