Dear Cooperators:

The world is facing enormous challenges. Planet Earth, our shared home, is undergoing transformations that require a paradigm shift in the way we produce, consume and even relate to each other.

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed millions of human lives and caused a huge amount of job losses.

It has also brought to light the inequalities that affect us on a global scale and in each region.

Faced with this scenario that has an impact on us all, we have an answer: the enormous potential of the cooperative movement and its proven track record in building fair, supportive and peaceful relationships in each community and at international level.

We know how to face crises, solving both local and global issues.
We know how to manage successful companies, large and small.

We know how to innovate.

We know how to empower youth, providing solid opportunities for personal and professional fulfillment through our business model.

We know how to practice equality with tools that allow people of all genders to build their own future, and facilitate women in particular the participation in decision-making and leadership positions within our movement.

Dear cooperative members, together we constitute the largest global network of locally rooted companies, with a unique Identity at a global scale, based on values and principles that unite us and set us apart from other models.

We are part of a great family coexisting in the wide diversity of the world cooperative movement, a reflection itself of the diversity of the human race, united to work towards a fair, supportive and inclusive economy that leaves no one behind.

This is what makes us key players in the paradigm shift that the world demands, showing in every corner of the planet the strength that comes with being a global movement with more than a billion members in three million cooperatives.

Whether large or small, centuries-old or newly created, urban or rural, today every cooperative should feel called upon and represented in our own shared home: the International Cooperative Alliance.

In recent years, we have positioned the ICA as a key player in international arenas debating on management models that can simultaneously address economic, social and environmental problems.

As you may know, I was born and raised in a small town in the Argentine pampas.

From a very young age, I fell in love with the cooperative movement and started advocating its values and principles in every aspect of my life.

In November 2017, you gave me your vote of confidence to head the team that today leads the ICA, a mandate I have fulfilled with pride and great responsibility.

In these four years I have done my best to honor the commitments of my mandate: putting the organization at the service of its members, promoting integration between the different ICA governing bodies, strengthening the potential of our innovative and inclusive business model, and positioning it as a fundamental ally of all international organizations committed to sustainable development.

We have made considerable progress, but my experience, my commitment and the ongoing dialogue with all of you tell me that there is still a long way to go.

Indeed, we have created the conditions to make the vision of the Cooperative Decade a reality: to be the fastest growing business model, preferred by the people and capable of ensuring economic, social and environmental sustainability at a local, national and regional level as well as, of course, worldwide.

That is why I want to call on you to continue on this path that we have been building together.

I offer once again my commitment, my dedication and my enthusiasm to move forward in a new chapter where we can crystallize new achievements.

I propose that in the June 20th assembly in Seville, Spain, we ratify the course.

Let’s keep cooperating!

Let us continue to be proud bearers of our cooperative Identity!

Let’s keep putting our principles into action!