Publications and tools on cooperatives

April 2022

  1. Social Protection & Cooperatives Spotlight - Mobilizing social and solidarity economy units towards universal social protection

    29 April 2022

    This ILO Spotlight brief is jointly developed by the Social Protection Department and the Cooperatives Unit in the Enterprises Department. It focuses on mobilizing social and solidarity economy units towards universal social protection. The brief builds on the related section of the Office Report on “Decent work and the social and solidarity economy” prepared for general discussion at the International Labour Conference 110th Session, 2022 (paras 73 et seq.).

  2. Integrated enterprise and market systems assessment on the refugee and host community livelihoods in Sudan

    20 April 2022

    This report details the findings of market assessments conducted on the groundnut and sesame value chains in East Darfur and West Kordofan.

March 2022

  1. South Africa’s social and solidarity economy: Alignment of the policy with national, regional and international frameworks

    31 March 2022

    Social economy

  2. South Africa’s social and solidarity economy: An evaluation of the policy development process

    31 March 2022

    Social Economy

December 2021

  1. Integrated enterprise, cooperative and financial services assessment on refugees and host communities around Jigjiga, Somali Region, and Shire, Tigray Region, Ethiopia

    13 December 2021

    The ILO conducted an assessment of the market systems (supply and demand) of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises development, business development services (BDS), cooperative promotion and access to financial services in the two regions.

November 2021

  1. An ILO initiative on advancing the Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives

    29 November 2021

    The ‘Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives’ were adopted at the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in October 2018, which were then approved by the Governing Body of the ILO in March 2019. The guidelines are a first step toward an international norm on statistics of cooperatives. This initiative envisages the evaluation of the information on the methods of collecting, organizing and analyzing statistical data on cooperatives in the light of the guidelines in five countries.

October 2021

  1. Cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy as vehicles to decent work in the culture and creative sector

    28 October 2021

    Recognizing the important role that the creative economy plays in social and economic progress, the UN General Assembly declared 2021 as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. The culture and creative sector (CCS), includes music production, movies, theatres and radio broadcasting, with many artists in the sector working in informal and precarious arrangements. With the COVID-19 pandemic, existing vulnerabilities have been further exacerbated, calling for attention to socially innovative organizing and business models in CCS. Social and solidarity economy (SSE) units, including cooperatives, mutuals, associations, foundations and social enterprises, can provide value and principle based services and livelihoods options to CCS workers. In light of the upcoming general discussion on SSE for a human-centred future of work at the 110th Session of the International Labour Conference, this brief highlights how SSE units in the CCS can contribute to advancing rights at work, improving quality of jobs, ensuring access to social protection, and fostering local economic development

September 2021

  1. Platform labour in search of value: A study of workers’ organizing practices and business models in the digital economy - Executive Summary

    07 September 2021

    This report seeks to capture the new strategies being deployed by self-employed workers to reclaim their rights to decent work and a fair share of economic gains in the value networks of the emerging platform economy. Specifically, it focuses on the experiences of workers in on-demand work, crowdsourcing and e-commerce sectors.

June 2021

  1. The role of cooperatives in eliminating child labour - A facilitator guide to train field trainers

    30 June 2021

    The objective of the training package on “The role of cooperatives in eliminating Child Labour” is to raise awareness of management, staff and members of agricultural cooperatives about child labour so that they are able to decide on and implement a set of actions that will contribute to the prevention and elimination of child labour within the cooperative’s and members’ operations as well as in their communities. It uses a situated learning approach, where participants are actively involved in their learning experience and learning focuses on skills and competencies specific to their professional practices. The training package builds on previous materials on cooperatives and child labour as well as ILO’s practical experience. The training package contains: a Facilitator guide to train field trainers and a Facilitator Guide to train management, staff and members of agricultural cooperatives. A PowerPoint presentation to support training of trainers can be requested from coop@ilo.org

  2. The role of cooperatives in eliminating child labour - A facilitator guide to train management, staff and members of agricultural cooperatives

    30 June 2021

    The objective of the training package on “The role of cooperatives in eliminating Child Labour” is to raise awareness of management, staff and members of agricultural cooperatives about child labour so that they are able to decide on and implement a set of actions that will contribute to the prevention and elimination of child labour within the cooperative’s and members’ operations as well as in their communities. It uses a situated learning approach, where participants are actively involved in their learning experience and learning focuses on skills and competencies specific to their professional practices. The training package builds on previous materials on cooperatives and child labour as well as ILO’s practical experience. The training package contains: a Facilitator guide to train field trainers and a Facilitator Guide to train management, staff and members of agricultural cooperatives. A PowerPoint presentation to support training of trainers can be requested from coop@ilo.org