Exclusive interview with Mr. Balasubramanian (Balu) Iyer, the Regional Director of International Co-operative Alliance- Asia-Pacific. Co-ops Strengthen Efforts to Realize SDGs
Besides organizing this seminar, what other efforts that ICA have done in promoting the importance of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to co-ops, particularly in the Asia Pacific region? The SDGs are a mandate of ICA so, it’s at the global level. The reason being is because SDGs are at the core of what co- operatives do. And if we take the 17 SDGs, co-operatives are involved in all of them. So, it becomes natural that we should be talking about it. ICA and its members have also worked hard to ensure that the UN recognizes co-ops as one of the main players for the implementation of the SDGs. Following the recognition, ICA have been asked to ensure its members are working on SDGs. In order to do that, we’re looking at various levels. One is in term of saying, “How do we advocate at the higher level?” The highest level as far as the SDGs go is at the UN. The UN meets every year in July, and a meeting of the high-level political forum takes place as well as various events are organized. Each year, some 15 to 20 countries signed up and present what they have done, as far as the implementation of the sustainable development. From our observation, the members of ICA that have presented their report are engaged with the focal point, which is the one that collects information from the ministries. So, we really encourage our members to engage with the focal point in their respective countries to know what the processes and to present the work of co-ops and implementation of the SDGs, so that it gets mentioned in the highest level. Last year, we had many countries like the SDGs of Japan, Indonesia and Nepal that mentioned about co-operatives when they presented their reports to the UN. Also, having seminars about SDGs not only educate our members about SDGs, but to make sure it will always be the topic of our conversation. ICA-AP had also organized a seminar in Nepal, where we focused on SDG 5, which is gender equality. So, similarly we have different seminars and workshops, where we educate our members in terms of what these SDGs mean and what we think co-ops can do because
there are 17 goals. Each goal has its own indicators and targets. So, we need to be able to also relate, which is applicable to co-ops.
From our understanding, this is not just only about achieving the SDGs, but at the same time it’s about making sure that the UN recognizes co-ops contribution? Yes, because co-ops are contributing in realizing the SDGs. ICA have created a website called “Coopfor2030” where our members can pledge their co-ops to contribute to achieving the SDGs and report their progress. It is not about pledging just to keep the website, but to also compile all the
62 PELANCAR June 2018
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