Egypt has secured the majority votes of both the International Cooperative Alliance and the African Cooperative Alliance to host the permanent headquarters of the African Organisation for Housing Cooperatives in Cairo, according to a statement issued by the Egypt’s General Authority for Construction and Housing Cooperatives (GACHC).

GACHC will also host the International Cooperative Alliance’s regional office for north Africa, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, GACHC is expected to sign the required protocols for these actions during the ceremony it is scheduled to hold over five days on 2 August in the presence of the officials of the two alliances.

Prior to the pandemic, GACHC organised the third round of the international conference for cooperative housing in December 2019 under the theme “Sustainable Cooperatives,” discussing the alignment of international and national cooperative development frameworks with the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

As the voice of cooperatives, GACHC is committed to educating its stakeholders about its efforts and how they fit within the SDGs, helping cooperative companies to respond to the UN’s call to action and collecting information about their contributions to the 2030 Agenda in order to better position cooperatives as partners throughout the implementation process.

According the International Cooperative Alliance, the cooperative movement in Egypt consists currently of five sectors, including consumer, agriculture, fishery, housing and production. It covers 18,000 democratic cooperative organisations, with 25 million citizens benefiting from its services.