The International Health Cooperative Organization (IHCO), in partnership with PromoCoop, has published a report that illustrates the many ways cooperatives in the health sector make a difference in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3, Better Health and Wellbeing, thus contributing to building a better world.
In this 100th International Day of Cooperatives, when the world is still facing one of its biggest challenges related to health, with the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, the report shows that cooperative enterprises are delivering sustainability in the health sector by offering health services to their members and communities, managing hospitals, clinics and other health facilities, providing health insurance, providing care services to vulnerable populations, promoting, informing, and educating for health, and providing pharmaceutical products and services. Cooperatives in the health sector ensure access to quality and affordable health products and services through a values-based and democratic model of enterprise, fulfilling the aspiration of building a better world proclaimed during the 2012 UN International Year of Cooperatives one decade ago.
The report explores the variety of ways that cooperatives deliver sustainability to their members and communities and provides a set of case studies that illustrate a diversity of cooperatives in terms of scope, size, models of ownership, and geographic locations. It also provides insights about the way cooperatives in the health sector have been combating the global pandemic, along with concrete recommendations for the growth and promotion of their business model in the health sector.
The report can be found here