International Cooperative Alliance
The International Cooperative Alliance is a non-governmental organization established in 1895. The ICA represents 306 cooperative federations and organizations across 105 countries, representing approximately one billion individuals worldwide.
History
In 2006, the ICA published the first major index of the world's largest cooperative and mutual enterprises, the ICA Global 300. Since 2011, together with the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, the ICA Global 300 has developed into the World Cooperative Monitor, a project designed to collect economic, organizational, and social data about cooperatives worldwide. The publication provides data on large-scale cooperatives and mutuals, including Top 300 rankings and sectoral analysis. Since 2018, each edition has also had a thematic focus; in 2022, it was dedicated to digitalization and the cooperative identity.Since 2014, the International Cooperative Alliance has participated in the G20 Engagement Groups, with representatives involved in various task forces and contributing to discussions and the development of official documents. The ICA created the International Cooperative Entrepreneurship Think Tank in 2018 to study and discuss entrepreneurship in cooperative enterprises. In 2020, the ICA established the Cooperative G20 Working Group.
On the first Saturday of July each year, the ICA coordinates celebrations of International Day of Cooperatives. In December 2009, the United Nations declared 2012 as the first International Year of Cooperatives and on June 19, 2024 the UN General Assembly declared that 2025 would be the second.
In 2020, the ICA introduced "A People-Centered Path to a Second Cooperative Decade", its strategic plan for 2020-2030. This plan was developed following consultations with members and replaced the earlier "Blueprint for a Cooperative Decade".
Insignia
The ICA adopted its original rainbow flag in 1924, with the seven colours symbolizing unity in diversity and the power of light, enlightenment, and progress.The rainbow ICA flag stopped being officially used in 2001. It is now superseded by the current flag which has a plum background and a white ICA logo in the center.