Publications and tools on cooperatives

March 2020

  1. Executive summary: Mapping responses by cooperatives and social and solidarity economy organizations to forced displacement

    23 March 2020

    Produced as part of a wider programme on responding to forced displacement crises, the report identifies good practices, lessons learned and potential areas of innovation by cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations working in displacement contexts.

January 2020

  1. Interactions between Workers’ Organizations and Workers in the Informal Economy: A Compendium of Practice

    30 January 2020

    A compilation of concrete examples, drawn from around the world, showing how trade unions have sought to reach out to workers in the informal economy to reduce the decent work deficits they face and support their transition to formality.

December 2019

  1. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 - Cooperative contributions to SDG 9

    09 December 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 focuses on SDG 9 – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

November 2019

  1. Financial Mechanisms for Innovative Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems - Executive Summary

    14 November 2019

    This report presents the results of the “Financial Mechanisms for Innovative Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems” project, designed to foster a better understanding of the different ways in which financial resources can be made available and accessed to support the growth of social and solidarity economy (SSE) organizations and their ecosystems. The project is supported by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social and Solidarity Economy of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

  2. Financial Mechanisms for Innovative Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems - Full Report

    14 November 2019

    This report presents the results of the “Financial Mechanisms for Innovative Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems” project, designed to foster a better understanding of the different ways in which financial resources can be made available and accessed to support the growth of social and solidarity economy (SSE) organizations and their ecosystems. The project is supported by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social and Solidarity Economy of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

  3. The cooperative enterprise as a practical option for the formalization of informal economy

    01 November 2019

October 2019

  1. Statistics on Cooperatives Country in Focus: Nepal

    24 October 2019

    Countries in Focus on Statistics of Cooperatives is a series produced by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) as part of a larger initiative to increase understanding of the ways in which countries around the world are producing and using statistics on cooperatives. Currently reliable and comparable statistics on cooperatives are missing in most countries of the world. These statistics are essential to measure the impact of cooperatives on their members and the economy as a whole.

  2. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 - Cooperative contributions to SDG 13

    14 October 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 13 – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

September 2019

  1. Think.COOP - an orientation on the cooperative business model - Facilitator's Guide

    30 September 2019

    Think.COOP is a low-cost, easy to use tool for those interested in establishing or joining a cooperative. It draws on technical content from existing materials from different ILO cooperative training tools on the basics of cooperatives. It also uses a peer-to-peer, activity-based learning methodology from the ILO’s Community-Based Enterprise Development (C-BED) programme. Think.Coop package contains: a training guide, a facilitator’s guide and two power point presentations that can be used for training of facilitators and direct beneficiaries.

August 2019

  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.