Monique Leroux, newly elected president of the International Co-operative Alliance, speaks at the organization’s general assembly held in Antalya, Turkey. Photo courtesy of the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives
Members of the International Co-operative Alliance agreed at a general assembly to hold a worldwide campaign on the International Day of Co-operatives set on the first Saturday of July.
At the meeting held with some 1,000 attendants on Friday, Nov. 13, in Antalya, Turkey, Monique Leroux, President and Chief Executive Officer of Desjardins Group, the leading co-operative financial group in Canada, was elected as ICA’s new president, succeeding Pauline Green.
According to the officials of the Central Union of Agricultural Co-operatives (JA-Zenchu), various countries have been using the International Day of Co-operatives as an opportunity to increase public awareness of co-operatives and their activities, but no worldwide united efforts have been made for more than a decade. Suggestions for such campaigns have been made to strengthen coordination among organizations in different countries.
In the campaign, ICA will focus on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, a process led by the United Nations that aims to help define the future global development framework. It will discuss how each organization should act in order to realize goals including ending poverty and starvation, securing sustainable living and consumption, implementing emergency measures to reduce climate change and its effects.
Meanwhile, Leroux was elected as the new president, winning the largest number of votes among the four candidates. She will serve a two-year term until the general assembly in 2017. She stressed that the important thing is to take action, and pledged to work together with the members.
(Nov. 17, 2015)