Resources on cooperatives

  1. ILO COOP participates in the Strategic Workshop “Toward an action plan to eliminate child labour and to promote decent work in solid waste management systems in Mexico”

    28 May 2021

    Head of ILO’s COOP Unit highlighted the role that cooperatives play for informal waste-pickers to access social protection, generate negotiation power with public and private stakeholders and to formalize their work.

  2. 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.

  3. © SEWA 2022
    How social cooperatives help informal workers

    16 July 2019

    Does organizing informal workers into their own cooperatives help them? Most certainly. Let me tell you about two poor salt-pan workers from the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK), Gujarat, India.

  4. Cooperative of Associated Work Planeta Verde: Improving living conditions of waste pickers in Colombia

    23 August 2018

    "Spotlight Interviews with Co-operators" is a series of interviews with cooperators from around the world with whom ILO officials have crossed paths during the course of their work with cooperatives. On this occasion, ILO interviewed Martha Elena Iglesias, a waste picker and the leader of Cooperative of Associated Work Planeta Verde in Colombia.

  5. Redesol - Building sustainable and solidary links among waste pickers in the informal economy in Brazil

    20 June 2018

    "Spotlight Interviews with Co-operators" is a series of interviews with cooperative leaders from around the world with whom ILO officials have crossed paths during the course of their work with cooperatives. For this issue ILO interviewed Ms Sonia Dias, Waste Picker Sector Specialist at Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) on Redesol, a network of cooperatives of waste pickers in Brazil.

  6. 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.

  7. Summary report - Advancing cooperation among women workers in the informal economy: The SEWA way

    28 March 2018

    This is a summary of the report “Advancing cooperation among women workers in the informal economy: The SEWA way” which aims to provide an understanding of the challenges and opportunities for cooperatives and other SSE enterprises in empowering women workers in the informal economy with a specific focus on the experience of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA).

  8. Cooperation among workers in the informal economy: A focus on home-based workers and waste pickers - A Joint ILO and WIEGO Initiative

    03 August 2017

    This report on “Cooperation among workers in the informal economy: A focus on home-based workers and waste pickers” is part of a joint ILO and WIEGO initiative, which aims to understand the nature and scope of cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises and organizations formed by workers in the informal economy. It focuses on the current challenges, opportunities, obstacles and practices among cooperatives of waste pickers and home-based workers in order to inform future actions and interventions that support cooperative growth.

  9. 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.

  10. The dreams and reality of a waste picker

    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 Fehmi Celikok, a waste picker from Turkey, about his life as a waste picker