In year-end 2010, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly declared 2012 as the “International Year of Co-operatives.” The declaration recognizes co-ops contribution to socio-economic development, poverty reduction, employment generation, and social integration, worldwide.
Meanwhile, Director-General Charles Gould of the Geneva-based International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), the world’s largest grouping of co-ops globally, announced in early April 2011 that the UN has already released the logo for the 2012 celebration. The logo and guidelines for its use are available at http://social.un.org/coopsyear/iyclogo.shtml.
According to the ICA, in order for co-ops to download and use the logo, it will be necessary to request permission from the UN by submitting the "liability waiver," which is accessed through the said site. A separate box on the request on the site requires the downloading party to indicate if it is a co-op, as distinguished from other commercial enterprises. ICA notes in its message that some of its member-organizations may find that they are best categorized as a civil society organization, which is acceptable to the request required for the logo.
Likewise in it message to co-ops, ICA also expresses its position that if its members use the UN-issued logo on any of their communications, it will be for information purposes, such as for, but not limited to, web sites, brochures, annual reports, product packages, shopping bags. If the members want to use the logo for fund-raising purposes associated with the 2012 “International Year of Co-operatives,” they should indicate this purpose in the request in the UN website.
ICA’s assistance to members on questions regarding the logo and guidelines is offered by emailing Ms Nicola Kelly, ICA's Co-ordinator for the International Year of Co-operatives, at kelly@ica.coop. Each member, however, that wishes to use the logo is expected to follow the process identified on the UN site.
Information regarding use of the logo in the official UN languages and in other languages is explained on the UN site. On questions received on the use (for the logo, graphic tag, and slogan) of the word "cooperative" with a hyphen (that is, "co-operative," as practiced in some countries and some entities), the UN has advised ICA that only one English version is permitted, that is, without the hyphen. ICA says that it will continue to seek redress on this matter, as the ICA itself and a number of its members hyphenate the word “co-operative.”
But since ICA has also pointed out that guidelines on using the word “cooperative” apply only to logo and to the graphic tag (the graphic tag is the specifically stylized version of the slogan), the slogan itself for the co-ops’ International Year (which is, "Cooperative enterprises build a better world") may be used as deemed appropriate by the members for as long that it is not in the stylized graphic
tag format. ICA states that this guideline should give co-op organizations the latitude to use the hyphenated version "Co-operative enterprises build a better world." Co-ops can also add explanatory text in some uses, such as "The United Nations has declared 2012 to be the International Year of Co-operatives." When
using the slogan or explanatory text in this fashion, ICA explains that co-ops should make certain that they follow and respect the guidelines that require a certain distance from the logo itself.
The ICA message also declares hope that co-op organizations will begin to incorporate the logo and slogan in their communications materials, so that all will be ready in time for the celebration in 2012.
The AWCF is a member of the ICA-Asia and Pacific’s Regional Women’s Committee.
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