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Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World by Asha-Rose Migiro International Year of Cooperatives As we launch the International Year of Cooperatives, we do this as the world witnesses growing discontent over the ongoing effects of the financial and economic crises. Increasingly, we see demands for a change in the ways we live and work. Increasingly, we see the need for choices and values that are sustainable, responsible, and inclusive. In confronting these challenges, we can draw strength from the cooperative spirit. The cooperative movement balances both economic viability and social responsibility. They make enormous contributions not only to their members, but to their communities and societies. They help to reduce poverty and create jobs. They promote food security and inclusive finance. They empower youth, women, older persons, people with disabilities and indigenous peoples. Hence, they serve as a significant social safety net. The International Year of Cooperatives is an opportunity to raise public awareness about cooperatives, to promote their formation, and to encourage Governments to establish policies conducive to their growth. Just as important, it is a chance to underscore the importance of cooperative values. One of these is sustainability. Cooperatives focus on the long-term. Through their use of local labour and capital, as well as their respect for the environment, cooperatives strengthen local economies while creating a sustainable future. A second cooperative value is solidarity. Cooperatives typically enjoy a strong community connection, and hold themselves accountable to more than solely their members or clients. For cooperatives, the well-being of the broader community is as crucial as the well-being of its members. Third, inclusiveness. As self-help organizations, cooperatives are inherently people-centred. They not only meet material needs, but also the human need to participate proactively in improving one’s life. Moreover, with democratic decision-making processes and a focus on cultivating member skills and capacities, cooperatives offer a model for harnessing the energies and passions of all. The International Year of Cooperatives coincides with the observance of the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All and with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, next June. Let us make the most of this confluence of events. Cooperatives present us with values and structures that are ideally suited for addressing the challenges we face. We must leverage these advantages to produce not only better businesses, but to advance the broader imperative of sustainable development. Visit the related web page |
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Environmental and Development Challenges: The Imperative to Act by Blue Planet Laureates Japan Feb 2012 We have a dream – a world without poverty – a world that is equitable – a world that respects human rights – a world that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, where the challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and social inequity have been successfully addressed. This is an achievable dream, but the system is broken and our current pathway will not realise it. Population size and growth and related consumption patterns are critical elements in environmental degradation and many social problems. The population issue should be urgently addressed by education, empowerment of women, health care of children and the elderly and making modern contraception accessible to all. Uncontrolled economic growth is unsustainable on a finite planet. Governments should recognise the serious limitations of GDP as a measure of economic growth and complement it with measures of the four forms of capital, built, natural, human and social capital, i.e., a measure of wealth that fully integrates economic, social and environmental dimensions. Environmentally-damaging subsidies in areas such as energy, transportation and agriculture should be eliminated, external environmental and social costs should be internalised, and the market and non-market values of ecosystem goods and services taken into account in decision-making. The present energy system, which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, underlies many of the problems we face today: exhaustion of physical resources, security of access to fuels, and health and environmental degradation. We are currently on a pathway to a world that is a catastrophic 5c warmer than humanity has ever faced. Universal access to clean energy services is vital for the poor, and a transition to a low carbon economy will require technological evolution in the efficiency of energy use, environmentally sound renewable energy sources and carbon capture and storage. Biodiversity has essential social, economic, cultural, spiritual and scientific values and is a prerequisite for human survival. The rapid loss of biodiversity, unprecedented in the last 65 million years, is jeopardising the provision of ecosystem services that underpin human well-being. Measures need to be greatly enhanced and integrated with social, political and economic concerns to conserve biodiversity and make a sustainable society possible. There is a need to value biodiversity and ecosystem services and create markets that can appropriate the value for these services as a basis for a true ‘green’ economy. There are serious short-comings in the decision making systems on which we rely in government, business and society. This is true at local, national and global levels. The rules and institutions for decision making are influenced by vested interests, yet each interest has very different access over how decisions are made. Effective change in governance demands action at many levels to establish transparent means for holding those in power to account. At the local level public hearings and social audits can bring the voices of marginalised groups into the forefront. At national level, parliamentary and press oversight are key. Globally, we must find better means to agree and implement measures to achieve collective goals. Governance failures also occur because decisions are being made in sectoral compartments, with environmental, social and economic dimensions addressed by separate, competing structures. Decision makers should learn from and scale-up ongoing grass-root actions and knowledge in areas such as energy, food, water, natural resources, finance and governance. This is key, not the least in rural communities with a view to their management, control and ownership of these resources. Similarly global cooperation can be improved by building on on-going regional cooperation to deal with common sustainable development issues. Effective training programs should be implemented to multiply the number of competent decision makers in business and government, who know how to integrate programmes and policies within sustainability constraints, who understand the business case thereof, and who have the skills to strategically move towards such goals. All of these problems demand we increase investments in education, research and assessments of knowledge. If we are to achieve our dream, the time to act at scale is now, given the inertia in the socio-economic system, and that the adverse effects of climate change and loss of biodiversity cannot be reversed for centuries or are irreversible (for e.g., species loss). Failure to act will impoverish current and future generations. (Environmental conservation is one of the most pressing of the global issues humankind faces. Global warming, acid rain, ozone depletion, tropical rainforest destruction, and river and ocean pollution are just some of the results of human activities that are having adverse affects on the Earth. In 1992, the year of the Earth Summit, the Asahi Foundation established the Blue Planet Prize, an award presented to individuals or organizations worldwide in recognition of outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application that have helped provide solutions to global environmental problems). Visit the related web page |
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