All news: social and solidarity economy

COOP Champions

Rodrigo Mogrovejo, senior specialist at the ILO Office for the Andean countries

COOP Champions features ILO colleagues from around the world working on cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises. It highlights their contributions, and shares highlights of their experiences, current work, and future...

Workers' cooperatives

Cooperatives today: Challenges and opportunities

A 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...

The true potential of the social and solidarity economy.

Cooperatives and social enterprises can help expand decent work and job opportunities, says ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder

UNRISD Conference

The true potential of the social and solidarity economy

Cooperatives and social enterprises can help expand decent work and job opportunities, says ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder.

UNRISD Conference

Guy Ryder's opening remarks to the UNRISD Conference on Social and Solidarity Economy

Banking crisis

Financial cooperatives: A safe bet in a crisis

A new ILO book says that financial cooperatives fared better than the big investor-owned banks during the economic crisis.

Third edition of the ILO Academy on Solidarity and Social Economy.

The third edition of the ILO Academy on Social and Solidarity Economy will be held in Morocco with a special focus on youth and job creation in Agadir, Morocco from 8-12 April, 2013.

Cooperatives

Egypt’s farmers: Sowing the seeds of an agricultural revolution

Agriculture will be critical to future economic growth in Egypt, says the ILO – but only if the laws on farmers’ co-ops are reformed.

Safety at work

Turning computer junk into jobs

Vast amounts of electrical and electronic waste end up in developing countries where the recycling methods are often hazardous. Integrating informal e-waste operations into the formal sector can help make the process safer, according to an ILO study...

International Year of Cooperatives

Healing pharmacies

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.

Banking co-ops

What financial cooperatives can teach the big banks

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

Microinsurance

The win-win potential of microinsurance for migrants

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.

World Food Day

ILO says cooperatives key to boosting food production

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.

Social finance

Giving banks a good name

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.

Cooperatives: Resilient to crises, key to sustainable growth

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.

Turning waste fruit into a profitable business

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...

Cooperatives show the way out of the crisis

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...

Reducing poverty and creating jobs through cooperatives in Indonesia

The cooperative movement in Indonesia is considered as one of the largest civil society organizations as well as social enterprises with great potential in rural development and employment creation.

Green and fair: Cooperatives in Ethiopia

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...

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

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...