The Role of Cooperative in the Light of New Economic and Social Trends

Urges Governments, relevant international organizations and the specialized agencies, in collaboration with national and international cooperative organizations, to give due consideration to the role and contribution of cooperatives in the implementation of and follow-up to the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development, the Fourth World Conference on Women and the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) by, inter alia:

Encourages Governments to keep under review the legal and administrative provisions governing the activities of cooperatives with a view to ensuring a supportive environment for cooperatives, so that they can make an appropriate contribution to the attainment of the goals of national development, including that of meeting the basic human needs of all;

Invites Governments, relevant international organizations, the specialized agencies and national and international cooperative organizations to continue to observe annually the International Day of Cooperatives on the first Saturday of July, as proclaimed by the General Assembly in its resolution 47/90;

Requests the Secretary-General, within existing resources, to continue to support the goals and objectives of the cooperative movement and to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session, through the Commission on Social Development, a report containing, inter alia, information on legislative and administrative initiatives taken by countries, bearing in mind possible measures to improve the reporting procedure;

Also requests the Secretary-General to ascertain, in cooperation with the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives, the desirability and feasibility of elaborating United Nations guidelines aimed at creating a supportive environment for the development of cooperatives and to include his findings and recommendations in his report referred to in paragraph 5 above.