Azerbaijan, Baku, June 5 / Trend , U.Ismayilova/
A formal resolution to make 2012 the Year of Cooperatives is expected to be adopted by the UN General Assembly in October, 2009. WOCCU hopes that every national government will do its best to encourage its country to vote in favour of this resolution, the Azerbaijan Credit Unions Association (AKIA) on June 5.
"Azerbaijan Credit Unions Association (AKİA) hopes that our government will support the resolution during the coming UN General Assembly as well," AKIA released.
At the end of April, 2008, President and CEO of the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), Pete Crear and a small group of experts on co-operatives from around the world were invited to the United Nations (UN) to participate in an Expert Group meeting on Co-operatives. At this meeting the President and CEO shared WOCCU's perspective on how credit unions have fared in the global financial crisis and we discussed the possibility of 2012 being named the UN Year of Cooperatives.
Notably that in 2005, WOCCU was a major supporter and participant in the UN's Year of Microcredit. This led to broader recognition of the powerful work of microfinance and credit unions' role in this work.
"We believe that a UN Year of Cooperative can have a similar positive benefit in not only recognizing the contributions of credit unions/cooperatives to society, but also propelling policy reforms that strengthen credit unions and cooperatives," the message said.
Founded as an international organization for credit unions and cooperative financial organization in 1971, the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) presently unites organizations from 96 countries. WOCCU members are regional and national credit unions associations that cover more than 49 000 credit unions uniting 177 million members worldwide. The aggregate assets of the credit unions currently exceed 1 trillion 181 billion USD. The WOCCU headquarters is situated in Madison City (Wisconsin, U.S.A.). WOCCU's goal is credit union development worldwide. The organization's mission includes information support, improvement of CU activity, as well as rendering financial services to those who have no access to financial resources.
The Azerbaijan Credit Unions Association (AKİA) was founded in 2003. AKİA's mission is promoting expansion of credit union network both regionally and internationally, assistance in foundation of new CUs, holding trainings for CU members to improve the quality of these non-banking organizations, establishing a connection between CUs and donor organizations, protection of CU rights and lobbying laws related to CU activity, etc.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: [email protected]