Cooperatives range from small-scale to multi-million dollar businesses across the globe, and employ some 100 million women and men. On the occasion of the International Day of Cooperatives (3 July), ILO Director-General Juan Somavia declared that "Cooperatives can be highly instrumental in enabling and empowering women and men to seize the opportunities created by globalization, and in providing a buffer against its downside." Here are two examples of ILO activities aimed at creating decent jobs and reducing poverty around the globe
The ILO and the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) have been working together since the 1920s to promote cooperatives, and collaborated on the adoption of ILO Recommendation 193 on the promotion of cooperatives, adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 2002. The signing of a partnership agreement between the two organizations in February 2004, to promote decent work and reduce poverty through cooperatives, will give this cooperation further impetus.
Under the terms of the partnership, the ILO and the ICA will jointly organize a funding campaign among major multi-bilateral donors and other development partners to finance the activities foreseen under their "Common Cooperative Agenda".
Among the initiatives for reducing poverty and providing decent work is the "SYNDICOOP", which groups the International Cooperative Alliance, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the ILO. SYNDICOOP brings together representation from associations of trade unions and cooperatives, governments and the leaders of small groups of informal-economy workers. A key aspect of the project is to ensure that groups gain assistance in improving working conditions and generating income. To this end, each national committee has established a revolving loan fund for member groups.
Another example is a cooperative development project financed by the Federation of MIGROS Cooperatives of Switzerland, and technically supervised by the INDISCO Programme of the ILO Cooperative Branch. The MIGROS-funded project will assist 3,000 tribal families in 30 villages in Orissa, India, in creating decent jobs and strengthening their community organizations. In this "twinning exercise", the ILO plays the role of a facilitator, giving full responsibility to the tribal communities to manage their development, with technical advice from the ILO.
For further information, please contact the ILO Cooperative Branch, coop@ilo.org; the ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities, actrav@ilo.org;the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), http://www.ica.coop/ or the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), http://www.icftu.org/