MoU signed between ILO and Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labour to promote SSE on a global scale

ILO signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Republic of Korea as part of the ILO/Korea Partnership Programme 2021-2023

News | 26 May 2021
On May 6 the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labour (MOEL) have signed an MoU on seven development cooperation projects, including a project on Strengthening the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Knowledge Base.

Mr. Noh Kil Jun, Director-General of the Bureau of International Cooperation in MOEL and Ms. Rie Vejs-Kjeldgaard, Director of the Department of Partnership and Field Support (ILO PARDEV) signed the MoU. The project on Strengthening SSE’s Knowledge Base will be implemented between 2021-2023 to raise the visibility of the contribution of SSE institutions to sustainable and inclusive development among policy-makers, civil society, academia and development partners.

The project is comprised of two parts: the first component seeks to generate a comprehensive overview, in both qualitative and quantitative terms, of the SSE landscape in six Asian countries (Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand & Kyrgyzstan), followed by a capacity-building and improved policy-making and dialogue on SSE at the national level.

The second component focuses on implementing cooperative statistics guidelines, to facilitate the development and use of a coherent, harmonized and standardized set of statistics on cooperatives. It will include pilot testing in five countries (Republic of Korea, Italy, Turkey, Costa Rica, Tanzania), and develop a manual on cooperative statistics, for presentation and discussion at the 21st ICLS in 2023.

This agreement is part of the ILO/Korea Partnership Programme for 2021-2023, that began in 2004 and is renewed every three years. The Programme promotes the contribution to the realization of the Decent Work in Asia-Pacific under the guidance of the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and supports ILO’s global efforts in advancing ILO’s Decent Work Agenda.

The signing of the MoU follows a recent milestone - on April 20 2021, when the Republic of Korea ratified three fundamental ILO Conventions in its commitment to promote freedom of association and elimination of forced labour. At the MoU signing, Korean counterparts expressed their commitment to human-centered recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, and vowed to strengthen its cooperation with the ILO in the promotion of decent work.