CICOPA (''International Organisation of Cooperatives in Industry and Services'') is a branch of the

International Cooperative Alliance The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) is a non-governmental co-operative federation or, more precisely, a co-operative union representing co-operatives and the co-operative movement worldwide. It was founded in 1895 to unite, represent an ...

. Founded in 1947, CICOPA has a membership of 46 national and regional

cooperative federation A co-operative federation or secondary co-operative is a co-operative in which all members are, in turn, co-operatives. Historically, co-operative federations have predominantly come in the form of co-operative wholesale societies and co-operative ...

s or support organizations. CICOPA is active in 30 countries, promoting worker cooperatives, social cooperatives and producers' cooperatives in industry and services. CICOPA has two regional organisations: CECOP (CICOPA Europe) and CICOPA Americas. CICOPA Americas includes two sub-regional organisations; CICOPA North America and CICOPA Mercosur. The 2003 CICOPA General Assembly held in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

approved in principle the World Declaration on Cooperative Worker Ownership. The final draft was approved by the CICOPA Executive Committee on 17 February 2004. The Declaration was then approved by the ICA General Assembly in Cartagena,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, in 2005. CICOPA organised a two-year consultation process with its members in order to develop a common concept concerning social cooperatives typologies. The World Standards of Social Cooperatives are the outcome of this process. They were approved in their substance at the CICOPA General Assembly held in Geneva on 18 November 2009 and in their final form at the CICOPA General Assembly held in Cancun, Mexico, on 16 November 2011.

References

External links

Official website
{{co-operatives Cooperative federations International economic organizations International organisations based in Belgium Organizations established in 1947