by Hanan El-Youssef, International Co-operative Alliance

The International Co-operative Alliance has been the global voice for co-operative enterprises since it was established in 1895 by co-operative movements around the world. It is the guardian of the Co-operative Values and Principles - the collective co-operative heritage and patrimony - and is the advocate for the co-operative model of enterprise in spheres of global advocacy and influence. The Alliance unites, represents, and serves co-operatives worldwide. Moreover, it provides a global voice and forum for knowledge, expertise, and coordinated action for and about co-operatives. It boasts members in 100 countries around the world, representing 1 billion individuals.

The importance of data and statistics in advocacy work hardly re- quires explanation. Understanding the true quantitative and qualitative volume of the global co-operative economy is essential in the advocacy efforts of the Alliance, as effective advocacy must be based on hard evidence. If we are to claim the existence of a co-operative difference, that, too, necessitates a robust body of research and analysis.

Despite such requirements, standardized, harmonized, and complete statistical data on co-operatives is scarce. Moreover, the application of existing metrics to measure and capture the influence of co-operatives often proves inadequate, as such metrics are largely founded upon an enterprise paradigm into which co-operatives do not fit.

The need for statistics on co-operatives is twofold. On the one hand, data are required to fill a significant gap in knowledge about the true size and demeanour of the global co-operative economy in all its diversity. Accurate evidence is at the core of advocacy efforts the Alliance undertakes on behalf of co-operatives at the global level. On the other hand, data - including the specific methodologies utilized to gather and analyze data, the indices, metrics, and the approaches in and of themselves - influence how co-operatives behave and how we assess performance in non-co-operative sectors.

The need to address the "data challenge" is not particular to co-operatives. In other sectors, the harmonization, standardization, and co-ordination of data for comparability has allowed for the development of nuance. A strategic approach helps to avoid duplication of effort and reduces the disparity in methodologies that, while useful for some purposes, do not yield a collective description of the size and quality of the movement. Significant efforts have been made and excellent reports have been generated, but these are not coordinated or made cohesive in a way that would allow for more credibility and legitimacy. These valiant and impressive efforts yield but a fragmented depiction of co- operative economy - an incomplete mosaic.

The Alliance has a role to play in developing, guiding, and driving a strategic approach to statistical data and research on co-operatives. A closer and stronger collaboration between national statistical agencies and co-operative federations would allow for more accurate and nuanced data. Closer, stronger collaboration between the UN and its agencies' efforts to depict co-operative economy and the Alliance would provide additional credibility to the figures collected. A more robust network of research and intelligence would facilitate the streamlining - if not the standardization - of what is collected and how. Furthermore, data banks would become far more robust and cumulative in both type and quality of data for long-term comparability. Such efforts would build the foundation for comparability, but also and especially for the longevity of data gathered, so that changes, progress, and growth would be captured in a more meaningful manner.

While the Alliance has a strategic role to play in coordinating efforts and facilitating synergies, it does not seek to dictate the trends of re- search and methodologies. Various institutions offer complementary strengths and capacities for gathering data on co-operatives. For example, the ILO brings national statistical agencies together in the International Conference of Labour Statisticians, which allows for the development of international statistical standards, while the Alliance can mobilize its members (themselves federations of co-operatives at the national level) to support data collection efforts. The Alliance Committee on Co-operative Research provides a forum where professionals in the field of (applied) research can exchange, coordinate, and synergize efforts.

The Alliance is diversifying its institutional partnerships in order to close the knowledge gap, establish baselines, and grow the global co- operative data bank. EURICSE produces the World Co-operative Monitor, which will be presented in the next section, in partnership with the Alliance; this provides a powerful depiction of the world's largest co-operative enterprises. It is already proving to be a useful advocacy tool. The International Organization of Industrial, Artisanal, and Service Producers' Co-operatives' (CICOPA's) work on co-operative employment sets the foundation for an increasingly robust understanding of the employment generation - real and potential, direct and indirect - of the co-operative model. A " Survey on Co-operative Capital" conducted by the Filene Research Institute gathered data never before collected on the finance mechanisms that co-operatives utilize, as well as providing a taxonomy of such instruments from a specifically co-operative perspective.

The Alliance engagement in such initiatives paves a solid foundation for a strategic approach that does not diminish the value of diversity in research methodologies. However, if we are to amplify the global voice of co-operatives, we must ensure that our figures provide us with solid, evidence-based claims from which to construct advocacy messages. We laud the co-operative difference; we know that its impact is real and promising. Strategic collaborations, co-ordination, and synergy will take all of these efforts to a new level of influence, as well as creating a deeper understanding of co-operative contributions to a sustainable global economy.