'Sahkar Se Samriddhi' Is the Answer to the World's Food, Fertiliser, Fuel and Finance Crises: Binod Anand at the United Nations
Binod Anand presents India's 'Sahkar Se Samriddhi' vision at the UN to tackle global food, fertiliser, fuel, and finance crises through cooperatives.
At the United Nations General Assembly, Shri Binod Anand has proposed a transformative vision to combat the interconnected global crises currently destabilising the world. Representing the Confederation of NGOs of Rural India (CNRI) and the World Cooperative Economic Forum (WCOOPEF), Anand presented the Indian philosophy of “Sahkar Se Samriddhi” (Prosperity through Cooperation) as a robust, people-centric strategy to address the escalating challenges in food, fertiliser, fuel, and finance.
A Unified Solution to Geoeconomic Disruptions
During deliberations on the Right to Development and high-level meetings with UN DESA management, Anand highlighted how modern geopolitical tensions are fracturing global supply chains. These disruptions have led to soaring input costs and restricted credit access, particularly for the Global South. He argued that the current crisis is not a series of isolated events but a single, complex geoeconomic chain.
“The world’s crises of food, fertiliser, fuel and finance are no longer separate problems. They are one geoeconomic chain, and whoever controls that chain controls the fate of billions of small producers,” Anand stated during his interventions.
The Cooperative Economic Framework (CEF)
Central to his presentation was the Cooperative Economic Framework (CEF) developed by CNRI. Rather than viewing cooperatives merely as welfare entities, the CEF positions them as vital strategic economic architecture. This framework aims to establish:
- Transparent local markets: Reducing the gap between producers and consumers.
- Member-owned finance: Providing resilient credit systems that bypass traditional exploitation.
- Farmer-controlled supply chains: Ensuring sovereignty over everything from seeds to final distribution.
By empowering producers to own the entire value chain—including dairy, fisheries, and even green energy sectors like compressed biogas—the framework seeks to turn supply shocks into shared burdens rather than opportunities for private windfall profits.
Building a Cooperative Firewall
Anand emphasized that as the world marks forty years of the Declaration on the Right to Development, the focus must shift toward ownership of growth. He described "Sahkar Se Samriddhi" as a "cooperative firewall" designed to protect against market concentration, financial exclusion, and economic coercion.
“Sahkar Se Samriddhi turns people from beneficiaries into stakeholders,” Anand remarked, stressing that development should be a right actively exercised by the people rather than a promise they wait to receive.
Proposed UN Collaboration and Digital Future
In his discussions with UN DESA, Anand proposed a strategic partnership titled “Cooperatives as Infrastructure for Inclusive, Digital and Sustainable Development.” This ambitious roadmap includes several key initiatives:
- A Global South Cooperative Policy Lab to study regional economic needs.
- A Cooperatives & VNRs Toolkit to assist in development reporting.
- A UN–Global South Cooperative Development Dialogue to foster international cooperation.
- A Coop-Eco Digital & AI Literacy Mission, with a proposed 12-month pilot program to bridge the technological divide.
The Confederation of NGOs of Rural India (CNRI) continues to play a significant role in these global dialogues, holding Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and maintaining long-standing affiliations with international financial education networks.