United Nations A/C.3/78/L.

11
General Assembly Distr.: Limited
10 October 2023

Original: English

Seventy-eighth session
Third Committee
Agenda item 24 (b)
Social development: social development, including questions
relating to the world social situation and to youth, ageing,
persons with disabilities and the family

Mongolia: draft resolution

Cooperatives in social development

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolutions 47/90 of 16 December 1992, 49/155 of 23 December
1994, 51/58 of 12 December 1996, 54/123 of 17 December 1999, 56/114 of
19 December 2001, 58/131 of 22 December 2003, 60/132 of 16 December 2005,
62/128 of 18 December 2007, 64/136 of 18 December 2009, 65/184 of 21 December
2010, 66/123 of 19 December 2011, 68/133 of 18 December 2013, 70/128 of
17 December 2015, 72/143 of 19 December 2017, 74/119 of 18 December 2019 and
76/135 of 16 December 2021 concerning cooperatives in social development,
Recognizing that cooperatives, in their various forms, promote the fullest
possible participation in the economic and social development of local communities
and all people, including women, young people, older persons, persons with
disabilities and Indigenous Peoples, whose inclusion strengthens economic and social
development, and contribute to the eradication of poverty and hunger,
Recognizing also that, as cooperative enterprises often serve the socially
excluded and vulnerable sectors of the population that traditional profit -driven
businesses may not be best placed to address, they are therefore important for the
support of socially inclusive policies that drive inclusive development, particularly in
developing countries,
Recognizing further that cooperatives and other social organizations can be
instrumental in promoting a just transition while working on climate change
adaptation and mitigation,
Reaffirming the adoption of the outcome document of the United Nations
summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda, entitled
“Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, 1 and the

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Resolution 70/1.

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Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for
Development, 2 and noting the acknowledgement therein of the role of cooperatives in
the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and in relation to financing for development,
Recalling its resolution 77/281 of 18 April 2023, entitled “Promoting the social
and solidarity economy for sustainable development”, in which it recognized that the
social and solidarity economy encompasses enterprises, organizations and other
entities that are engaged in economic, social and environment al activities to serve the
collective and/or general interest, which are based on the principles of voluntary
cooperation and mutual aid, democratic and/or participatory governance, autonomy
and independence and the primacy of people and social purpose ove r capital in the
distribution and use of surpluses and/or profits, as well as assets,
Recognizing the important contribution and potential of all forms of
cooperatives to the follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development and the
Fourth World Conference on Women, including their five-year reviews, the United
Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III),
the World Food Summit, the Second World Assembly on Ageing, the International
Conference on Financing for Development, the World Summit on Sustainable
Development and the United Nations summit for the adoption of the post -2015
development agenda,
Recognizing also that cooperatives can make important contributions towards
and benefit from improved global food security through their role as stakeholders in
national pathways of transformation toward sustainable, resilient and inclusive food
systems,
Noting that, globally, there are about 3 million cooperatives, and 10 per cent of
workers worldwide are either employed by a cooperative or are worker-owners within
a cooperative,
Recognizing that cooperatives may contribute to the economic status of women,
as well as to their capacity-building, including education and training in key skills,
and promote the social and economic development of all persons, including young
people, older persons and persons with disabilities,
Noting with appreciation the potential role of cooperative development in the
improvement of the social and economic conditions of Indigenous Peoples and r ural
communities,
Noting the proposal contained in the report of the Secretary-General entitled
“Our Common Agenda” to convene a world social summit in 2025, to be discussed
and agreed upon by Member States, including its modalities, title, objectives, sc ope
and possible outcomes, and emphasizing that the possible summit’s outcome should
have a social development approach and give momentum towards the implementation
of the 2030 Agenda,
Welcoming the efforts of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations to showcase the role of agricultural cooperatives, including in improving food
security and nutrition, particularly in rural areas, promoting sustainable agricultural
practices, improving the agricultural productivity of farmers, including by providing
capacity-building and training, and facilitating access to markets, savings, credit,
insurance and technology, and in so doing strengthen sustainable food systems,
1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General; 3

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2
Resolution 69/313, annex.
3
A/78/187.

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2. Notes with appreciation the celebration of the International Year of

Cooperatives, in 2012;
3. Calls for the proclamation of another International Year of Cooperatives
in 2025, and encourages all Member States, as well as the United Nations and all
other relevant stakeholders, to take advantage of the International Year of
Cooperatives as a way of promoting cooperatives and raising awareness of their
contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and to
overall social and economic development;
4. Encourages all Member States, as well as the United Nations and all other
relevant stakeholders, to share best practices identified through activities
implemented during the International Year of Cooperatives and to continue those
activities, as appropriate;
5. Encourages Governments, as appropriate, to consult with cooperatives as
part of their preparations for their voluntary national reviews for the high -level
political forum on sustainable development;
6. Draws the attention of Governments to the recommendations contained in
the report of the Secretary-General to focus support on cooperatives as sustainable
and successful business enterprises by strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem
for cooperatives, enabling them to further contribute directly to decent employment
generation, poverty and hunger eradication, education, social protection, including
universal health coverage, financial inclusion and the creation of affordable housing
options across a variety of economic sectors in urban and rural are as and to review
existing legislation and regulations to make the national legal and regulatory
environment more conducive to the creation and growth of cooperatives by improving
existing laws and regulations and/or by establishing new ones, especially in the areas
of access to capital, autonomy, competitiveness and fair taxation;
7. Invites Governments and international organizations, in partnership with
cooperatives and cooperative organizations, to strengthen and build the capacity of
all forms of cooperatives, especially those run by the poor, young people, women,
older persons, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities and those in vulnerable
situations, so that they can empower people to transform their lives and communities
positively and build inclusive societies, and to ensure the full, equal and meaningful
participation of women and young people in cooperatives, in particular in their
decision-making processes;
8. Invites Governments to strengthen efforts to enhance food security and
nutrition to foster sustainable production and consumption, to promote the
progressive realization of the right to adequate food and to focus efforts on
smallholders and women farmers, as well as on agricultural and food cooperatives and
farmers’ networks, supported by measures to improve access to markets and financial
capital, create enabling domestic and international environments and strengthen
collaboration across the many initiatives in this area, including regional initiatives;
9. Encourages Governments to promote access to information and
communications technologies as a vital channel for collaboration and the expansion of
cooperatives, especially in rural areas, working towards closing the digital divides,
including for all women and girls, persons with disabilities and older persons;
10. Also encourages Governments to intensify and expand the availability,
accessibility and dissemination of evidence-based research on the operations and
contribution of cooperatives, to develop a statistical framework for the systematic
collection of comprehensive and disaggregated data on and the best practices of
cooperative enterprises, taking into consideration available methodologies, such as the
guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives, in collaboration with all stakeholders,

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and to raise public awareness of the linkages between cooperatives and sustainable
development, especially in the areas of social inclusion, decent employment creation,
poverty eradication in all its forms and dimensions, inequality reduction, gender
equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and peacebuilding;
11. Invites Governments, relevant international organizations, the specialized
agencies and local, national and international cooperative organizations to continue
to observe the International Day of Cooperatives annually, on the first Saturday of
July, as proclaimed by the General Assembly in its resolution 47/90;
12. Invites Governments, in collaboration with the cooperative movement, to
develop programmes aimed at enhancing the capacity-building of cooperatives,
including by strengthening the organizational, management and financial skills of
their members, while respecting the principles of gender equality and the
empowerment of women and girls, and to introduce and support programmes to
improve the access of cooperatives to new technologies;
13. Encourages Governments to take appropriate measures to adopt or
develop legislation and policies that provide women with equal access to land and
support women’s cooperatives and agricultural programmes and enable women’s
cooperatives to benefit from public and private sector procurement processes and
increase trade;
14. Requests the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the relevant United
Nations and other international organizations and national, regional and international
cooperative organizations, to continue to render support to Member States, as
appropriate, in their efforts to create a supportive environment for the development
of cooperatives, integrating cooperative values, principles and business models into
educational programming, including school curricula, as approp riate, providing
assistance for human resources development, technical advice and training and
promoting an exchange of experience and best practices through, inter alia,
conferences, workshops and seminars at the national and regional levels, within
existing resources;
15. Also requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at
its eightieth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution.

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