The United Nations has proposed the Sustainable Development Goals to bring people out of poverty and address the issues that keep them there. These tasks were set down after the Millennium Development Goals, which were supposed to be accomplished by this year but were not entirely fulfilled. The United Nations sat down and looked at the programs that they had implemented to eliminate poverty to see what worked and what did not. The conclusion was that cooperatives saw the most success in raising people out of poverty.

That is the direction the United Nations has decided to go in when figuring out how to make the new Sustainable Development Goals a success.

Cooperatives are community driven; the focus is on the people. They combine the resources of several people/groups in the community, forming bonds and creating businesses that one person could not do alone. It allows people who had never had a say in running things to speak. More importantly, cooperatives allow those who are most affected—the poor—a say in the outcomes. Local people are tied together, and thus, want to work for the betterment of their community.

Research that the United Nations conducted also concluded that cooperatives increased employment (especially in the areas that they were located), improved gender equality, used more clean energy, bettered food security and provided social protection. Generally speaking, cooperatives create 100 million jobs worldwide, which is more than any multinational enterprise. Another economic gain is income protection, as the people earn what they make and no big cooperation takes a cut.

In order to monitor the future success of the cooperatives, the United Nations created the Division for Social Policy and Development. The department is to aid in the formation of cooperatives across poverty-stricken areas.

In conclusion, the cooperatives not only bring economic success to poor areas, but also develop many other aspects of the community—something the United Nations wants to see happen. They want to give people the skills and resources to better themselves not just economically but socially and politically. Cooperatives can do this.

– Katherine Hewitt

Sources: UN 1, UN 2, UWCC
Photo: UN