International Co-operative Day aims to promote movement's successes

The International Co-operative Day and International Day of Co-operatives is celebrated on the first Saturday of July every year. Its aim is to increase awareness on co-operatives and promote the movement's successes and ideals of international solidarity, economic efficiency, equality and world peace.

The International Day also aims to strengthen and extend partnerships between the International Co-operative Movement and other actors, including governments, at local, national and international levels.

International Cooperatives Alliance( ICA) first celebrated International Day in 1923. In 1994, thanks to the lobbying efforts through the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) of which the ICA is a member, the United Nations recognised and reaffirmed that co-operatives have an important role to play in economic, social and cultural development and proclaimed an UN International Day of Co-operatives to be celebrated for the first time in 1995, marking the centenary of the establishment of the ICA. The UN requested all its member governments to join with their co-operative movements to celebrate the day.

The decision of the UN to celebrate an international day with the ICA highlights the complementarity of the goals and objectives of the United Nations and the international co-operative movement.

Both, ICA and UN Days are celebrated on the same day - the first Saturday in July every year.

Since 1995, the ICA and the United Nations through COPAC jointly set the theme for the celebration of the International Day. It underscores the contribution of the movement to resolving global issues addressed by both the Co-operative Movement and the United Nations. The theme is generally selected in the Spring.