Cooperatives (COOP)
International standard on cooperatives guides work
ILO activities are guided by the international standard on cooperatives, the ILO Recommendation on the Promotion of Cooperatives, 2002 (R.193), It Cooperative Branch (EMP/COOP) serves ILO constituents and cooperative organizations in four priority areas:- Raising public awareness on cooperatives through evidence based advocacy and sensitization to cooperative values and principles;
- Ensuring the competitiveness of cooperatives by developing tailored tools to cooperative stakeholders including management training, audit manuals and assistance programmes.
- Promoting the Inclusion of teaching of cooperative principles and practices at all levels of the national education and training systems; and,
- Providing advice on cooperative policy and cooperative law, including participatory policy and law making and the impact on cooperatives of taxation policies, labour law, accounting standards, and competition law among others.
Partnerships for cooperative promotion
The ILO works in partnership with the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the representative world body of cooperatives and is a member of the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC), an interagency committee which promotes sustainable cooperative development. It also collaborates with cooperative development agencies and training institutions.A cooperative is defined as an "autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise."
ILO Recommendation 193
Highlights
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Feature
Helping women to help themselves escape poverty in Myanmar
10 June 2013A non-profit organization set up in response to the devastation caused by cyclone Nargis employs women to run small businesses that benefit poor communities.
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Article
Cooperatives today: challenges and opportunities
14 May 2013A recent seminar organized by the ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities and the ILO’s Cooperative Branch brought together researchers and practitioners from around the world to talk about some of the issues and experiences that cooperatives are facing today.
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Event
Trade unions and worker cooperatives: Where are we at?
9 May 2013Under the aegis of the International Journal of Labour Research, ACTRAV and COOP/EMP are holding a seminar on the theme of the relationship between trade unions and worker cooperatives.
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Statement
Guy Ryder's opening remarks to the UNRISD Conference on Social and Solidarity Economy
06 May 2013 -
Press release
The true potential of the social and solidarity economy
06 May 2013Cooperatives and social enterprises can help expand decent work and job opportunities, says ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder.
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Analysis
Financial cooperatives: A safe bet in a crisis
12 April 2013A new ILO book says that financial cooperatives fared better than the big investor-owned banks during the economic crisis.
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Report
Resilience in a downturn: The power of financial cooperatives
20 March 2013This report reviews the performance of financial cooperatives, looking in particular at the aftermath of the 2007-2008 crisis and the continuing long austerity period. It explains why financial cooperatives have proven to be more resilient pointing to the specificities of the cooperative model of enterprise.
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Event
Potential and Limits of Social and Solidarity Economy
6-8 May 2013This conference is being jointly organized with UNRISD and will take place in the ILO, Geneva.
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Book
Guidelines for Cooperative Legislation (Third revised edition)
December 2012Provides guidance to policy and lawmakers as well as other stakeholders to update existing and draft new cooperative legislation
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Fact sheet
A cooperative future for people with disabilities
December 2012This issue brief produced during the International Year of Cooperatives 2012 highlights how and why the cooperative form of enterprise can cater to the economic and social needs of persons with disabilities.
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Fact sheet
A better future for young people: What cooperatives can offer
November 2012Information brief on cooperatives
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External links
www.stories.coop
- The Benefits of Women-Led Co-ops in Arab States
- Co-operative legislation finds a home in more nations
- Simel Esim on the power of cooperatives
- Myths, death and insurance
- In Kenya, working hand in hand with the ILO to create cooperatives and jobs
- A Model for Small-Scale Farmers in Zanzibar
- Empowering women through their own SACCOS
- Providing security through SACCOs in Ethiopia
- Turning waste fruit into a profitable business
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External links
www.thenews.coop
- ILO report highlights the resilience of financial co-operatives during crisis
- ILO highlights co-ops' important role in Japan’s recovery from natural disasters
- Co-ops help to promote gender equality, says Simel Esim
- Simel Esim on the importance of getting the youth in co-ops
- What world do we want as cooperators? And is the work done?
- Dunsany Declaration feeds into the ICA's Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade
- Simel Esim speaks of the ILO’s co-operative branch key projects
- ILO Director-General explains why co-ops are key to feeding the world
- Two UN agencies support co-ops role in alleviating youth unemployment crisis
- 1,000 co-operators celebrate Global Worker Co-op Day
- Co-operative Youth Forum: Empowerment, Employment and Engagement
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Feature
Healing pharmacies
12 November 2012As the International Year of Cooperatives draws to an end, ILO News looks at how cooperatives in Turkey offer customers easier and safer access to medicines.
Key resources
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Instructional Material
Handbook on Cooperatives for use by Workers' Organizations
01 January 2007This handbook lists the essential things to know about cooperatives for all those who are interested as members, future members, politicians or staff of national or international institutions in charge of the promotion and development of cooperatives. In simple, understandable language, the handbook deals in turn with the characteristic features of cooperatives, cooperative enterprise as a whole, the promotion of cooperatives and the close ties that exist between the ILO and cooperatives.
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Let’s organize! : a SYNDICOOP handbook for trade unions and cooperatives about organizing workers in the informal economy
01 January 2006This SYNDICOOP Handbook is designed to help replicate the approach by serving as a resource for trade union and cooperative organizers and trainers. It was finalized by members of the International Steering Committee of the SYNDICOOP Programme, mainly comprising representatives from the International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICFTU now ITUC), the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and ILO together with National Steering Committee members from all four programme countries as well as project staff.
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Guidelines for cooperative legislation, second revised edition
01 February 2005Provides guidance on how to draft cooperative law.
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