The cooperative movement at the service of social medicine
The CM50 Leadership Circle promotes the cooperative and mutual business model globally, demonstrating its potential to accelerate the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Leaders from the world’s largest cooperative and mutual companies gathered in Madrid on May 21 and 22 to discuss collaborative solutions to some of the planet’s most urgent challenges.
The Cooperative and Mutuals 50 (CM50) Leadership Circle explored how to strengthen a shared vision, co-created a unified commitments plan, and prepared for the upcoming UN World Social Summit, to be held in Doha next November.
The meeting was convened by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the global cooperative business network. CM50 aims to foster growth and innovation among top-level cooperative and mutual leaders worldwide.
This initiative seeks to:
The Madrid meeting was supported by the Espriu Foundation, Assistència Sanitària, and the ASISA Group.
“In a context where social, economic, and political challenges are global in scope, and in view of the International Year of Cooperatives 2025, it is vital that cooperatives work together to demonstrate the impact we can achieve,” said Jeroen Douglas, Director General of the ICA.
He noted that CM50 shows “not only our ability to drive a more sustainable future, but also how our organizations—as models of good business practice—can transform society and increase the market share of cooperatives, which in turn will help build a better world.”
Many of the companies represented in CM50 are listed among the world’s largest cooperatives, a ranking published by the ICA and Euricse since 2012. These organizations span countries and sectors, reflecting the equitable and independent nature of cooperative and mutual enterprises, and are active in agriculture, finance, engineering, technology, insurance, and healthcare.
“Those of us here share two fundamental values: solidarity versus individualism, and democracy versus power concentration,” said Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Economy, who was present at the event.
“As collectively owned and socially oriented enterprises, cooperatives are particularly well-equipped to tackle today’s global challenges and promote inclusive and sustainable development,” said Dr. Carlos Zarco, Director General of the Espriu Foundation and host of the CM50 event in Madrid.
Dr. Zarco emphasized that the Doha World Social Summit represents a key opportunity for governments to support this potential with policies placing cooperatives at the heart of the 2030 Agenda.
“Health cooperatives are already showing how to deliver accessible, people-centered care, contributing to achieving universal health coverage. The Espriu Foundation is proud to host CM50, which sends a clear message: supporting cooperative enterprises is essential to building a fairer, healthier, and more sustainable world,” he concluded.
A meeting of the Cooperatives and Mutuals Leadership Circle (CM50) has been organised on the 22nd of May in the Spanish capital city, which will bring together the largest cooperatives in the world.
The general manager of the International Cooperative Alliance speaks with Fundació Espriu from Delhi, where the cooperative movement summit will take place in a few days, marking the kickoff for the International Year of Cooperatives scheduled for 2025.