The cooperative statistics component of the ILO project on Strengthening SSE Knowledge Base in Asia was featured at the third Social Economy Fair in Korea

The ILO presentation at the third Social Economy Fair, held in Gwangju from July 2 to July 4, focused on statistics of cooperatives component of the second phase of the project on Strengthening SSE Policy in Asia.

Actualité | 29 juillet 2021
ILO presentation on statistics of cooperatives took place on July 3, 2021 at the 3rd Social Economy Fair of Korea that was held in Gwangju. The social economy fair is held annually in the Republic of Korea, around the International Day of Cooperatives (which is celebrated on the first Saturday of July each year) bringing together representatives from government and social economy institutions, and public and private corporations.

The fair aims to sensitize the general public on the social economy, its core values and principles, and its role in shaping an inclusive and sustainable economy. Held in a hybrid format, the Fair featured more than 200 booths by social economy institutions sharing good practices and displaying their products.

Mr. Dong Il Choi, ILO Cooperatives and Social & Solidarity Economy Development Specialist presented on July 3rd, the International Day of Cooperatives, on the “Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives: Pilot-testing in Korea”. He noted that a new project on Strengthening Social and Solidarity Economy Knowledge Base, launched in July 2021, aims to facilitate the implementation of coherent, harmonized and standardized set of statistics on cooperatives. It will conduct pilot testing in five countries (Republic of Korea, Italy, Turkey, Costa Rica, Tanzania).

Mr. Choi introduced the Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives, including the process leading to their adoption at the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, their objectives and uses. He then elaborated on the Guidelines’ main components - types of cooperatives, definitions, and recommendations on data collection and analysis. He shared the plans for the pilot testing of the guidelines in Korea, stressing the collaboration with relevant ministries, Statistics Korea, relevant agencies and federations as key to the success of the pilot test in Korea.

Mr. Choi concluded his presentation by sharing a plan for the next steps, including the establishment of a national advisory committee (NAC), and the sharing of key results of pilot testing at the 21st ICLS in 2023, towards the development of a manual on cooperative statistics for presentation and discussion at the 22nd ICLS in 2028.

His presentation was followed by a round of questions, and a reporter approached him from Eroun, a social economy media portal, for a follow up interview. The ILO project team plans to conduct similar awareness raising workshops and seek collaboration with relevant stakeholders in other pilot countries (Tanzania, Turkey, Italy and Costa Rica).

Mr. Choi’s full presentation can be viewed here.