translated from Spanish: The role of cooperatives in the territories: everyone wins

Transparency, democracy, social responsibility, collective participation, inclusion and collaboration are some of the core values shared by cooperatives and which today make more sense than ever before. We are at a time when we must all together be able to work together, to fulfill the enormous challenge of bringing an entire country forward.
This collaboration becomes even more important as cooperatives are present in all regions of Chile, since it is precisely from the territories where the sustainable development of communities as a whole is promoted, and not just that of some.
For this reason, cooperatives play a fundamental role in the decentralization and deconcentration of the country, since from mutual collaboration, men and women from different localities form and join cooperatives after the purpose of improving their quality of life in the economic, social and cultural order, thus allowing a local development that solves territorial problems that benefit everyone.
How do they do it? By creating jointly owned, democratically controlled, autonomous and collaborative enterprises, generating a virtuous model in which their results benefit all their members and whose surpluses are reinvested and used in their territories to contribute to local economic development.
According to figures from the Social Economies Association Division, 76% of cooperatives are concentrated in regions, as well as 70% of their partners. Most of them are in the service sector; this last point is quite relevant, as cooperatives arrive with the provision of goods and services to isolated territories that the State or traditional enterprises do not cover.
Today more than ever, it is necessary to continue to enhance the cooperative model to achieve a better and more inclusive future for Chile. I invite you to help us add young people so that they know and understand that associative work is a good way to generate ventures and to consider it as a real alternative to social and economic growth in the territories.

The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.

Original source in Spanish