Resources on cooperatives

  1. ILO’s Cooperatives Unit and Social Finance Programme co-organize an elective session at the Rural development academy 2021

    29 April 2021

    ILO’s Cooperatives Unit and Social Finance Programme co-organized an elective on “Sustainable Finance and Cooperatives in Rural Areas” to highlight the role of cooperatives in the rural economy and access to financial services through a range of traditional and emerging financial service providers.

  2. ILO Contributes to a UN DESA webinar on MSME formalization through cooperatives

    15 March 2021

    The webinar on “Promoting MSME Formalization through the Cooperative Enterprise Model” took place on 11 March 2021 with the participation of policy makers, cooperatives, and development partners

  3. Cooperatives in Africa

    10 December 2020

    As part of the ILO COOP 100 photo exhibitions, the ILO is featuring the contributions of cooperatives and the wider SSE to advancing decent work and sustainable development. The eighth in the series of slideshows highlights cooperative and wider social and solidarity economy (SSE) enterprises in Africa.

  4. Cooperative Principle 7: Concern for community

    08 December 2020

    The seventh in the series of slideshows highlights the seventh cooperative principle: concern for community. Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.

  5. Cooperative Principle 3: Participation

    08 December 2020

    The cooperative principles are guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice. The fifth in the series of slideshows for ILO COOP 100 focuses on the third cooperative principle on Member Economic Participation. Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative.

  6. Executive summary: Mapping responses by cooperatives and social and solidarity economy organizations to forced displacement

    23 March 2020

    Produced as part of a wider programme on responding to forced displacement crises, the report identifies good practices, lessons learned and potential areas of innovation by cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations working in displacement contexts.

  7. African cooperative leaders share their observations on the 10th ILO-JCCU Study Tour

    30 October 2019

    African cooperative leaders visited Japanese cooperatives and exchanged knowledge and practices in improving members’ livelihoods and addressing various development challenges in the changing world of work.

  8. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 - Cooperative contributions to SDG 14

    26 July 2019

    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 This brief focuses on SDG 14 – Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

  9. Sharing research findings on the potential of cooperatives in promoting universal health coverage

    28 June 2019

    On June 20, 2019 the ILO co-organized a meeting on the “Cooperatives for Health” initiative at the Biotech Campus in Geneva.

  10. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 - Cooperative contributions to SDG 2

    16 October 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 focuses on SDG 2 – ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.