Cultural Heritage of Cooperativism
What is Cooperative Cultural Heritage?
Cooperative Cultural Heritage (CCH) refers to the collective legacy of cooperatives that have shaped societies, economies, and cultures across the world. It encompasses both Tangible Elements such as sites, institutions, museums and legacy enterprises, and intangible traditions, including elements of local practice & traditions that safeguard cooperative values, practices, and governance systems passed down through generations. Together, these elements tell the story of how cooperation has contributed to sustainable livelihoods, community resilience, social justice, and cultural identity.
ICA Cooperative Cultural Heritage (CCH) Programme
The ICA's ambitious undertaking to establish a Cooperative Cultural Heritage (CCH) inscription program signifies a recognition of the cooperative movement's enduring legacy and its unique contribution to global human history and, through its continuing service, to sustainable development.
This initiative aims to systematically identify, document, and safeguard the tangible and intangible manifestations of cooperative principles across continents.
In 2025, the ICA-CCH programme launched information about twenty-five physical sites that embody the culture of cooperation at the local and national levels.
The Three Main Goals
Digital World
Map of CCH
Identifying, through consultations with WG member, and recognizing, through a digital map of the world, 25 geographical sites of undisputed cooperative heritage at the inter/national level.
International Standards
Developing, through consultations with cultural heritage professionals and legal experts, the first version of international standards and exploring potential certification mechanisms concerning Cooperative Cultural Heritage.
Global
Advocacy
Launching, a global communications and public-relations campaign to make widely known the contribution and potential of cooperatives to culture and sustainable development.
This programme serves the long-term goal of the ICA to facilitate the collection of information and key insights about those places and practices of cooperation that are not widely known.
The objective is indeed to go back to the first principles of the ICA, which is to make known the co-operators of the world, and their work, globally.
With its launch on 12 November 2025 in Brazil, this ICA-CCH Programme has opened the nominations process, inviting ICA Member Organizations to submit information about sites, monuments, museums etc. that embody Cooperative Cultural Heritage in their countries!
The ICA Cooperative Cultural Heritage Programme is led by a Global Working Group established by the ICA Board on 26 September 2024, which officially began its work in February 2025, with its secretariat at the ICA Global Office in Brussels, Belgium, and the mentorship provided by ICA Member Organizations - Organização das Cooperativas Brasileiras and technical leadership of the National Cooperative Development Corporation of the Government of India.
The purpose and the programme of this Working Group is also to celebrate the fact that the Very Idea and Practice of Organizing Shared Interests into Cooperatives is included in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the UNESCO. These elements of cultural significance to humanity, including the cooperative idea, are protected by the UNESCO Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003, which is ratified by more than 150 countries worldwide.
UNESCO Inscription of the Cooperative Idea and Practice as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. The Original plaque was gifted to the ICA by FWR, Germany in 2021. Read more.
Meet the Members
Meet the members of the ICA Working Group on Cooperative Cultural Heritage.