Resources on cooperatives

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Kerryn Krige, ILO DWT/CO-Pretoria

    22 July 2019

    COOP Champions features ILO colleagues from around the world working on cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises. It highlights their contributions, and shares highlights of their experiences, current work, and future aspirations.

  4. A key step taken towards developing a social economy policy in South Africa

    28 February 2019

    A draft Green Paper on a social economy policy in South Africa presented at a national consultation conference in Sandton. In a speech to the conference, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder reflected on the relevance of social and solidarity economy organizations and their value-driven, human-centred approaches in addressing the challenges in the changing world of work.

  5. Consultancy for the drafting of a Green Paper on social economy

    10 December 2018

    The International Labour Organization and the Economic Development Department of the Republic of South Africa are looking for a consultant to prepare a Green Paper on the social economy in South Africa. For details please see the document below.

  6. ILO’s participation in the WIEGO General Assembly

    29 November 2018

    ILO COOP participated in the seventh General Assembly of Women in Informal Economy: Globalizing Organizing (WIEGO) that took place in Johannesburg, South Africa from 12-14 November 2018.

  7. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 Cooperative contributions to SDG 12

    20 June 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 12 – ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns.

  8. Summary report: Cooperatives’ competitiveness potential for trade in SADC countries

    14 June 2018

    The objectives of the research are to determine what opportunities exist for agricultural cooperatives to export, with what products, and to which markets from which SADC countries. The external constraints to increasing cooperative share of export markets and the ability to be competitive in the SADC, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and EU markets have been identified as critical considerations in prioritizing the products, markets and countries.

  9. Public policies for social and solidarity economy: Assessing progress in seven countries

    13 October 2017

    This particular study is a comparative analysis of seven ILO case studies. In the first part, an overview of the public policies for social and solidarity economy in Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the Philippines, South Africa, the Republic of Korea and Italy is presented. The second part offers a comparative perspective of public policy for social and solidarity economy in terms of key instruments, achievements and limitations. Different pathways are identified and four specific challenges related to state capacity, policy coherence, participation and sustainability are examined.

  10. Public policies for the Social and Solidarity Economy: Towards an enabling environment. The case of South Africa

    24 March 2017