What is "cicopa"

CICOPA (International Organisation of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producers' Cooperatives) is the branch of the International Cooperative Alliance that promotes worker cooperatives. CICOPA has a membership of 43 national and regional cooperative federations in 28 countries. Its associated members are support organizations promoting cooperatives in their regions.

Many of those cooperatives are worker cooperatives, businesses where the employees are the owners of the enterprise.

In 2003, the then CICOPA president Rainer Schluter reported that in Europe they have seen a leap from 2,500 worker co-ops and related models in 1980, to 85,000 today, with a total membership of 1.5 million worker-owners

The 2003 CICOPA General Assembly held in Oslo, Norway approved in principle the World Declaration on Cooperative Worker Ownership. The Final draft was approved by the CICOPA Executive Committee on 17 February 2004. The Declaration was then approved by the ICA General Assembly in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2005.

CICOPA currently has a total of 43 members in 28 countries, four of which are development organisations. CICOPA has two regional organisations: CECOP- CICOPA Europe and CICOPA Americas. CICOPA Americas includes two sub-regional organisations; CICOPA North America and CICOPA Mercosur.

CICOPA's most recent general assembly took place in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 2013.