Resources on cooperatives

  1. ILO’s message to a conference on Italian cooperative responses toward advancing gender equality at work

    11 April 2019

    ILO has sent a video message for a conference on women in the workplace and cooperative responses to advance gender equality in Italy.

  2. 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.

  3. Sri Lankan women making waves in local industry

    05 November 2018

    With determination, detergent and the support of the ILO project promoting local empowerment through economic development in Sri Lanka, a group of women-headed households have gained social and economic power.

  4. My.Coop – empowering women coffee producers in Colombia

    24 September 2018

    My.Coop – training on agricultural cooperative management has strengthened entrepreneurial and organizational capacities of at least 315 women coffee producers in Colombia since 2016.

  5. 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.

  6. Advancing domestic workers’ rights through cooperatives in Trinidad and Tobago: An ILO, NUDE and SWCC initiative

    18 April 2018

    This brief summarizes one example of the ILO’s work in advancing domestic workers’ cooperatives. The ILO supported the National Union of Domestic Workers (NUDE) in Trinidad and Tobago to provide their members with access to employment opportunities and improved working conditions through a cooperative society.

  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. Role of cooperatives in rural women empowerment discussed during a side event at CSW62 in NY with ILO participating for COPAC

    26 March 2018

    The Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations organized a side event at the 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York focusing on the role of cooperatives in rural women empowerment.

  9. ILO joins the conversation on women’s empowerment through cooperatives, an Italian perspective

    08 March 2018

    ILO COOP Unit Manager participated in the event on “WomeNpowerment in Coops: Italian cooperatives contributing to the achievement of gender equality in the world” organized on the occasion of the International Women’s Day by the Commission of Women Cooperative Managers of the Italian Confederation of Cooperatives (ConfCooperative) and CooperMondo.

  10. 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).