Resources on cooperatives

  1. COPAC organizes an International Day of Cooperatives event on cooperatives and climate action

    22 July 2020

    ILO’s Enterprises Department Director and Chair of the Committee on Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC), Mr van Vuuren, participated as a speaker in a virtual event organized on the occasion of the International Day of Cooperatives focusing on climate action on 9 July 2020.

  2. How cooperatives can help Brazil’s waste pickers build back from COVID-19

    03 July 2020

    This year’s International Day of Cooperatives on 4 July will focus on climate action. Waste pickers’ cooperatives in Brazil are examples of how cooperatives can help combat climate change, while facing the challenges thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  3. 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.

  4. A passion, mission - organizing waste pickers.

    21 December 2016

    During “The Potential of Cooperatives & the Role of Waste Pickers in the Recycling Sector” workshop in Ankara, Turkey, on 20-21 December 2016, ILO COOP spoke to Manuel Mateu an Engineer from the Movement of Excluded Workers (MTE) in Argentina, about his work as an organiser of waste pickers.