Publications and tools on cooperatives

  1. Tackling informality in e-waste management: The potential of cooperative enterprises

    21 October 2014

    The present paper is the product of a joint effort by the Sectoral Policies Department and the Cooperatives Unit of the International Labour Organization (ILO). This initiative supports the ILO’s commitment to promote forms of employment that safeguard the environment, eradicate poverty and promote social justice through sustainable enterprises and decent work, as reinforced by the international Labour Conference (ILC), at its 102nd session in June 2013.

  2. Promoting cooperatives: An information guide to ILO Recommendation No. 193

    06 October 2014

    The ILO’s Recommendation 193 on the Promotion of Cooperatives was adopted in 2002 and provides an internationally agreed template for national policy. This second edition has been updated and revised and will help cooperatives, governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations to help to make the cooperative model to become the option for achieving sustainable development.

  3. COOP NEWS UPDATE

    06 October 2014

    This issue of the COOP News includes articles on various events, projects, trainings and meetings related to the work of the ILO's COOP Unit between April and August, 2014.

  4. Cooperating out of isolation: Domestic workers’ cooperatives

    15 September 2014

    This note on ways cooperatives provide a way out of precarious and informal working arrangements for domestic workers, is the third in the series on Cooperatives and the World of Work.

  5. Leveraging the cooperative advantage for women’s empowerment and gender equality

    15 September 2014

    This note is a part of the ILO COOP Cooperatives and the World of Work Series.

  6. Cooperatives and the Sustainable Development Goals: A contribution to the post-2015 development debate

    10 September 2014

    This paper highlights the contribution of cooperatives to sustainable development with a view to stimulating discussion on the role of cooperatives in the design and implementation of SDGs.

  7. Cooperative movement engagement in sustainable development and the post-2015 process: Survey findings

    27 June 2014

    In order to bring cooperative voices into the discussion around the post-2015 development agenda, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) have launched an initiative on the contribution of cooperatives to sustainable development. This brief reports on the results of an online survey that investigated the current and potential contributions of cooperatives to sustainable development.

  8. ILO and Cooperatives - ILO COOP NEWS No. 1, 2014

    19 May 2014

    This issue of the COOP News includes articles on various events, projects, trainings and meetings related to the work of the ILO's COOP Unit between January and March, 2014.

  9. Cooperatives and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Contribution to the Post-2015 Development Debate. A policy brief

    08 April 2014

    This brief summarizes the main findings of a forthcoming report of the same title, by Frederick O. Wanyama of Maseno University in Kenya, prepared as part of ILO’s contribution to the initiative on the contribution of cooperatives to sustainable development.

  10. Trade unions and worker cooperatives: Where are we at?

    01 April 2014

    Last May, ACTRAV and the ILO cooperative branch held a seminar on the topic of relations between trade unions and worker cooperatives. The goal was to re-examine the relationship between the two movements by taking stock of recent initiatives around the world. To be sure, the relationship between trade unions and cooperatives is as long as the history of trade unions. In fact, it is fair to say that the first associations of workers that emerged in Europe looked more like cooperatives than trade unions.