9 November 1981

49th plenary meeting

National experience in promoting the co-operative movement

The General Assembly, Recalling its resolution 33/47 of l4 December l978 on national experience in promoting the co-operative movement and other relevant resolutions referred to in that resolution,

Desiring to promote the implementation of the International Development Strategy for the Third United Nations Development Decade,

Reaffirming that co-operatives play an important role in the socio-economic development of developing countries,

Convinced that the exchange among countries of national experience relating to the co-operative movement plays an essential role in strengthening the co-operatives for the benefit of their members and in overcoming difficulties in the development of various co-operatives,

1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on national experience in promoting the co-operative movement;

2. Invites the regional commissions and specialized agencies concerned to make further efforts with a view to promoting the co-operative movement as an effective instrument for the improvement of the well-being of the population;

3. Requests the Secretary-General to prepare, in consultation with Member States and relevant organizations of the United Nations system, a comprehensive report on national experience in promoting the co-operative movement, paying special attention, inter alia, to the following aspects:

(a) Role of co-operatives in over-all social and economic development, particularly in rural areas;

(b) Participation of peasants, including landless peasants, as well as of women and youth in co-operatives;

(c) Ability of co-operatives to increase the material welfare of their members;

(d) Interrelationship between agrarian reform and agricultural co-operatives;

(e) Difficulties faced by countries in the establishment and development of co-operatives and their experience in overcoming them;

4. Further requests the Secretary-General to submit, through the Commission for Social Development and the Economic and Social Council, the above-mentioned report to the General Assembly at its thirty-eighth session for discussion under the item entitled "National experience in achieving far-reaching social and economic changes for the purpose of social progress".