All ILO Newsroom content

November 2012

1. 

   International Year of Cooperatives

   Healing pharmacies

   12 November 2012

   As 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.

2. 

   Banking co-ops

   What financial cooperatives can teach the big banks

   05 November 2012

   The success of financial cooperatives during the global financial crisis shows there is a credible alternative to the investment-owned banking system.

October 2012

1. 

   Microinsurance

   The win-win potential of microinsurance for migrants

   29 October 2012

   International migrants send home over US$ 400 billion a year, yet they and their families often lack basic social protection. That is where microinsurance can step in.

2. 

   World Food Day

   ILO says cooperatives key to boosting food production

   16 October 2012

   Agricultural cooperatives – the theme of the 2012 World Food Day – are a vehicle for decent lives and decent work, according to ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.

September 2012

1. 

   Social finance

   Giving banks a good name

   19 September 2012

   Is it possible for banks to devote themselves to the financial welfare of workers and still survive financial crises? The ILO looks at the Rokin Bank, a union-led cooperative in Japan.

July 2012

1. 

   News

   Cooperatives: Resilient to crises, key to sustainable growth

   06 July 2012

   In a message marking International Day of Cooperatives, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia salutes the approximately one billion people worldwide who are involved in cooperatives.

2. 

   Article

   Turning waste fruit into a profitable business

   05 July 2012

   Cooperatives have played an important role in Indonesia by helping to boost growth, reduce poverty and promote social cohesion. As the world celebrates the UN International Day of Cooperatives, Gita Lingga reports on a successful project involving rural women in the Maluku islands.

3. 

   Article

   Cooperatives show the way out of the crisis

   04 July 2012

   Cooperatives have been more resilient to the global economic and jobs crisis than other sectors. The UN International Day of Cooperatives, which takes place this year on 7 July, offers a chance for cooperatives to reassert their position in the world economy. ILO News interviews Simel Esim, Chief of the ILO’s Cooperative Branch.

June 2012

1. 

   Article

   Green and fair: Cooperatives in Ethiopia

   19 June 2012

   By their very nature, cooperatives can balance economic, environmental, and social needs. The ILO will be showcasing some of its successful experiences in this field at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). One of them involves more than 200,000 coffee producers and almost 200 cooperatives in Ethiopia.

December 2011

1. 

   Article

   From the depths of an African shantytown, a nascent youth employment movement grows

   14 December 2011

   In Africa’s second largest slum, youth unemployment is sky high. But cooperative projects are helping youth find work and slowly lift themselves out of poverty through such projects as raising food in community gardens, processing waste for bio-fuel or providing improved sanitation. Journalist Anne Holmes reports on how this emerging economic revival is making a small but significant dent in a major ongoing challenge.