PANAMA CITY, September 21, 2026 — The United Nations [ UN ] has called for a stronger partnership with the global cooperative movement, highlighting the vital role cooperatives play in promoting peace, social inclusion and sustainable development in an increasingly uncertain world.
Addressing the International Cooperative Alliance Global Conference in Panama City, Bjorg Sandkjaer, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [UN DESA], said the world faces interconnected challenges, including conflict, inequality, climate change and economic uncertainty.
She said these challenges can be overcome through cooperation, solidarity and renewed international collaboration.
“Peace is more than the absence of conflict,” she said. “It requires societies where people have opportunities, participate in decision-making and feel included in shaping their future.”
Sandkjaer highlighted the close alignment between cooperative principles and UN values, including democracy, participation, equality and shared prosperity.
She noted that, beyond their economic contribution, cooperatives help strengthen social cohesion and trust, providing practical examples of how collective action can address both local and global challenges.
Their people-centred approach, she added, makes cooperatives important partners in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and ensuring that development leaves no one behind.
The Assistant Secretary-General welcomed growing international recognition of cooperatives, including in recent global agreements reached at the Second World Summit for Social Development and the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.
She said the agreements recognise the contribution of cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy to sustainable development.
Sandkjaer emphasised that stronger international collaboration is essential to addressing today’s challenges and called for deeper partnerships among governments, the United Nations, cooperatives, civil society and the private sector.
At a time when the world is undergoing major economic, social, digital and energy transitions, she said, such partnerships can help ensure that progress benefits everyone.
“The challenges before us are great, but so is our collective capacity to address them,” she concluded.
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