Resources on cooperatives

  1. Advancing cooperation among women workers in the informal economy: The SEWA way

    05 July 2018

    This report aims to provide an understanding of the challenges and opportunities for cooperatives and other SSE units in empowering women workers in the informal economy, with a specific focus on SEWA’s experience. It is based on individual interviews and focus group discussions with select cooperative leaders and members and also uses select studies presenting the forty-year experience of SEWA with cooperatives.

  2. Advancing women’s cooperatives in Turkey

    08 March 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 Şengül Akçar, Executive Director of the Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work (FSWW).

  3. Turkey’s first women cooperative consist of both Syrian and host community women is established

    21 February 2018

  4. Providing Care through Cooperatives 2: Literature Review and Case Studies

    01 March 2017

    Today, care is provided in myriad forms, from childcare and eldercare to care for persons living with a disability or illness. What is more, the need for care is growing worldwide, driven by demographic shifts including the growing ageing population and the rising number of persons living with illnesses.

  5. Providing Care through Cooperatives 1: Survey and Interview Findings

    03 March 2016

    Cooperatives are emerging as an innovative type of care provider, particularly in the absence of viable public or other private options.This report lists challenges and opportunities that cooperatives face in the care sector, highlighting resources that cooperatives need in order to be viable care providers, enterprises and employers.

  6. ILO COOP Resources on Cooperatives and Women’s Employment and Entrepreneurship

    16 October 2015

    The adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 laid the foundation for action towards gender equality in all aspects of economic, social, cultural and political life. As women’s empowerment and gender equality emerges as a goal of the sustainable development agenda, organizational and entrepreneurial models that are egalitarian and build on principles of democratic participation are needed.

  7. When work is more than “just a job”

    02 July 2015

    As the world celebrates the International Day of Cooperatives, ILO News looks at how one cooperative in Brooklyn, New York, is offering migrants a dignified and sustainable way to make a decent living.

  8. Advancing gender equality: The co-operative way

    30 June 2015

    Great strides have been made towards gender equality over the last two decades. Nevertheless, deep gender disparities persist across the globe, surfacing in labour markets, as well as other realms. Compared to men, women continue to earn less, are more likely to partake in unpaid labour, and are more apt to be excluded from decent work and opportunities for advancement. As gender equity is increasingly seen as a pillar for sustainable economic development and broad social well-being, alternative models to development which incorporate women’s equality in work are needed. Rooted in values of self-help, equality, and equity, as well as economic growth through cooperation and democratic processes, co-operative enterprises are well-positioned to answer this call.

  9. Cooperating Out Of Isolation: The Case of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait

    04 December 2014

    As in other parts of the world, Arab countries have seen an increase in – mainly female – migrant domestic workers, who have become the primary care providers in the household. This is the result of many contributing factors including the lack of affordable and well-regulated social care provisions and infrastructures, demographic shifts and transformation of families, and changing income and working patterns.

  10. Cooperating Out of Isolation: The Case of Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait

    Representatives from governments, worker’s organisations, informal domestic worker networks, and national and international experts on workers’ self-organisation gather in Amman to discuss and explore potential organizing services for domestic workers including cooperatives in Arab States.