Resources on cooperatives

  1. ILO sheds light upon the role of cooperatives in the elimination of child labour at the Academy on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work

    29 October 2021

    The two sessions organized in the framework of the Academy provided insights of the ILO’s work with cooperatives toward the elimination of child labour and presented practical cases of cooperatives that take action to combat child labour.

  2. ILO COOP participates in a webinar on women’s collective entrepreneurship

    01 July 2021

    The webinar, organized by SEWA, IMAGO Global Grassroots and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations focused on women’s collective enterprises and building an enterprises support system.

  3. ILO COOP Chiefs across time

    03 November 2020

    This page provides bibliographies of the chiefs and heads of the ILO's Cooperatives Unit since its establishment in 1920.

  4. The ILO Participates in a session on Gender and the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) at the GSEF Global Virtual Forum

    27 October 2020

    Representatives from ILO COOP and ILO Pretoria participated and presented at a session on women in SSE institutions that took place on October 20 as part of the GSEF Global Virtual Forum

  5. Waste pickers’ cooperatives and social and solidarity economy organizations

    20 August 2019

    Waste pickers make significant contributions to public health, sanitation, and the environment by promoting resource circulation and reducing the amount of landfill. However, they are often not legally recognized as workers and suffer from poor working conditions and lack of social protection. This brief highlights the role of waste pickers' cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations (SSEOs) in integrating and formalizing the work of waste pickers in the recycling value chain and improving their working conditions.

  6. My.Coop – empowering women coffee producers in Colombia

    24 September 2018

    My.Coop – training on agricultural cooperative management has strengthened entrepreneurial and organizational capacities of at least 315 women coffee producers in Colombia since 2016.

  7. Cooperatives meeting informal economy workers' child care needs - A Joint ILO and WIEGO Initiative

    25 April 2018

    Cooperatives set up and run by workers in the informal economy are among the solutions in meeting women workers’ care needs, while also helping protect their labour rights. This report complements the ILO's previous studies with cases from Brazil, India, and Guatemala on how informal economy workers’ organizations can mobilize through cooperatives to provide child care services to their members. The case studies highlight diverse forms of child care provision and outline the varied partnerships needed to implement and sustain child care services for informal economy workers.

  8. Role of cooperatives in rural women empowerment discussed during a side event at CSW62 in NY with ILO participating for COPAC

    26 March 2018

    The Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations organized a side event at the 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York focusing on the role of cooperatives in rural women empowerment.

  9. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 - Cooperative contributions to SDG 5

    08 March 2018

    This brief is part of the Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 series produced by the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC). Through a series of 17 briefs, one for each Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), COPAC hopes to raise awareness about the significant contributions of cooperative enterprises towards achieving the 2030 Agenda in a sustainable, inclusive and responsible way, and encourage continued support for their efforts. This brief in the series focuses on SDG 5 – achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

  10. How Peruvian quinoa farmers have boosted their income

    04 October 2017

    The Andean Grains Programme – a joint ILO-FAO-UNESCO initiative – not only improved the livelihoods of organic quinoa producers but also contributed to the economic empowerment of women.