The 40 participants of the training course came from different francophone countries, such as Haiti, Senegal, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Congo and included representatives from different ministries, trade unions and employers’ organizations.

Mr. Martin Gasser, Program officer of EMLD at the International Training Center of the ILO (ITC-ILO) in Turin, opened the session by providing an overview of the course and the session. He mentioned that entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as a key strategy to unlock the productive and innovative potential of young people. Collective and SSE entrepreneurship is a growing phenomenon in many countries.

Ms. Valentina Verze, Technical Officer on SSE and the Future of Work at ILO COOP, presented the concept of the SSE and its main features and principles. Ms. Verze highlighted the SSE’s role in recovery efforts during the previous crises, and the need to overcome the dichotomy between the mainstream economy and the SSE. She noted the need to find transformative solutions to address urgent problems – e.g. social deficits, climate change, inequalities. She presented the trends in the world of work and how SSE enterprise models are contributing to decent work and sustainable and inclusive development.

Mr. Guy Tchami, Technical Officer on Cooperatives of ILO COOP, continued the intervention by introducing the services that the ILO provides on SSE enterprises and entrepreneurship development. Mr Tchami mentioned the areas of work of ILO around technical cooperation, research, capacity building and creation of strategic partnership. He also presented some concrete projects and processes supported by ILO in some countries on leveraging SSE to address decent work deficits and to contribute to youth entrepreneurship.
During the Q&A session, the participants discussed the challenges SSE movements face in their countries, especially in terms of needs for capacity building of its SSE organizations and enabling environment, including lack of legal frameworks.

The presentation of Ms. Verze and Mr. Tchami is available here.

For more information on SSE portfolio at ILO COOP, please see here.

For more information on courses of ITC-ILO, please see here.