International Year of Cooperatives, 2025

Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly without a vote on 19 June 2024, at its 91st plenary meeting, resolution 78/289 proclaims 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives. It is a two-page procedural text: it sets no targets, contains no figures and does not mention housing.

The preamble links cooperatives to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development. It recognises 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 — and contribute to eradicating poverty and hunger. It recalls the first International Year of Cooperatives in 2012 and resolution 78/175 of December 2023, which called for a second.

1. Proclaims 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives. 2. Invites Member States to consider national mechanisms, such as national committees, to prepare for, observe and follow up on the Year. 3. Invites the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs — with international organisations, cooperative organisations and the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives — to facilitate the Year and support Member States' planning. 4. Stresses that all costs are to be met from voluntary contributions, including from the private sector. 5. Asks the Secretary-General to bring the resolution to the attention of Member States, the UN system, civil society, the private sector and academia.

Its significance for cooperative housing is as the formal basis for the 2025 International Year: the framework within which national committees and cooperative organisations of every kind are invited to promote cooperatives and their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.