Cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy (SSE): Statistics

Key milestones across time

• 2002: Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation No.193
  • The Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation no. 193 adopted by the ILO in 2002 states that national policies should “seek to improve national statistics on cooperatives with a view to the formulation and implementation of development policies”.
• 2013: 19th International Conference of Labour Staticians
  • The 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2013 included cooperatives in the Conference agenda for the first time in its history.
  • The Resolution concerning further work on statistics of cooperatives gave the ILO a mandate to carry out further developmental work on the measurement of cooperatives in collaboration with interested stakeholders.
• 2018: 20th International Conference of Labour Staticians
  • The ILO, in collaboration with its constituents and a number of national and international partners, had been working towards developing guidelines on the measurement of cooperatives.
  • The adoption of the Guidelines concerning Statistics on Cooperatives at the 20th ICLS which were then approved by the Governing Body of the ILO in March 2019.
  • This is the first version of an international norm on statistics on cooperatives.
• 2022: 110th Session of the International Labour Conference
  • Resolution concerning decent work and the social and solidarity economy was adopted at the 110th International Labour Conference.
    • 9(n) of the Resolution specifies that the ILO should aim to "support Members in further developing a methodological framework to measure the SSE’s economic and social contribution, collecting and compiling comparable, timely, reliable, and harmonized data on the SSE, and work towards the development of international guidelines on statistics concerning the SSE and examine the potential to establish an international observatory on SSE data in collaboration with SSE networks and representative bodies, national statistical offices and international organizations that will contribute to the promotion of decent work."
    • 16(c) of the Resolution specifies that the ILO should aim to "support Members in further developing a methodological framework to measure the SSE’s economic and social contribution, collecting and compiling comparable, timely, reliable, and harmonized data on the SSE, and work towards the development of international guidelines on statistics concerning the SSE and examine the potential to establish an international observatory on SSE data in collaboration with SSE networks and representative bodies, national statistical offices and international organizations that will contribute to the promotion of decent work."
• 2022: 346th ILO Governing body
  • The ILO strategy and action plan on decent work and the social and solidarity economy outlines the ILO's strategy, action and outputs on advancing SSE statistics.
• 2023: 21st International Conference of Labour Staticians

  Key development on advacing statistics on cooperatives and the wider SSE were presented at the 21st International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), held from 11th to 20th of October, 2023. The presentations included:

  • The progress of the ILO initiative on the applicability and implementation of the Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives in five countries.
  • The Roadmap towards guidelines concerning statistics of the SSE.
• 2028: 22nd International Conference of Labour Staticians
  • The 22nd ICLS to be held in 2028 is expected to highlight new progress of the ILO's work on advancing the harmanized, comparable and high-quality statistics on cooperatives and the wider SSE.
  • Updates will be shared here on this page.