Development is about the sustainable generation and distribution of wealth. Cooperatives have been dealing with long-term wealth generation and distribution, and thus with development, since long before the term “development” came into fashion. The experience accumulated over decades by cooperatives in creating sustainable jobs and reinforcing territorial development represents a valuable response for the new challenges: the massive wealth and job destruction caused by the crisis has brought back the focus onto the real economy, job creation and territorial development in public agendas.

The International Year of Cooperatives represents an important opportunity to raise public awareness about the significant contribution of cooperative enterprises to territorial development.

Its main aim is to launch an open debate on how to build a path towards a cooperative development strategy, based on the concrete experience of cooperatives in industrial, service, social, craft and health sectors.