On 5 July, the United Nations celebrated the International Day of Cooperatives, honouring the unique contributions of cooperatives to inclusive and sustainable development. That year’s theme—Cooperatives: Driving Inclusive and Sustainable Solutions for a Better World—reflected the growing recognition of cooperative enterprises as essential actors in addressing global challenges.

It features over 130 concrete actions to support the renewed global financing framework that world leaders just adopted at the international conference.

As the international community prepares for the Second World Summit for Social Development this November in Doha, global attention is turning once again to a bold vision of human well-being first championed in 1995. Thirty years after the historic Copenhagen Summit, Member States are being called upon to reclaim and revitalize the integrated, people-centred approach to development that placed dignity, inclusion, and equality at the heart of global policy.

Today marks the inaugural International Day of Deafblindness, officially recognized by the United Nations General Assembly to raise awareness of deafblindness as a distinct disability and champion the rights of individuals with combined vision and hearing loss.

Building a Better World Together: Cooperative Contributions to the SDGs is a policy brief series developed in support of the 2025 UN International Year of Cooperatives to showcase how cooperatives drive progress across the Sustainable Development Goals.

On 16 June 2025, the President of ECOSOC informed through a note verbale of the decision to appoint eight members nominated by Indigenous Peoples’ organizations to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for a 3-year term beginning 1 January 2026. The confirmation of the appointments will take place at the ECOSOC Management Segment (29-30 July 2025). They are:
Ms. Amina Amharech (Morocco)
Ms. Aluki Kotierk* (Canada) 
Ms. Patricia Gualinga Montalvo (Ecuador) 

DESA is pleased to announce the upcoming high-level event “Sport as a Catalyst for Sustainable Development: Innovative Financing and International Cooperation in Action”, taking place on Thursday, 12 June 2025, at 3PM at UN Headquarters, organized by the Permanent Missions of Italy, Albania, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon and UNDESA.

The 18th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP18) will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 12 June 2025.

Football unites fans worldwide – but on Wednesday it matched the sport’s global reach with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the lead-up to World Football Day, marked on 25 May.

Building a Better World Together: Cooperative Contributions to the SDGs is a policy brief series developed in support of the 2025 UN International Year of Cooperatives to showcase how cooperatives drive progress across the Sustainable Development Goals.