Cooperatives contribute to sustainable production and employment in Sri Lanka
The International Day of Cooperatives is celebrated on the first Saturday of July each year. This year’s theme, Sustainable consumption and production of goods and services is timely, as the International Labour Organization (ILO) works towards a future of work that is based on sustainable production and employment models.
10 July 2018
ILO News (Colombo)- The ILO all around the world has witnessed the positive impact of co-operators commitment to sustainable consumption and production. In the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, for instance, in the post-conflict era, cooperatives helped build the resilience of local communities. A rapid assessment at the start of the ILO’s Local Empowerment through Economic Development project (LEED) indicated that cooperatives were the only stable structures present in Northern Sri Lanka before, during, and after the conflict. Since 2011, the project has been supporting agriculture and fishery cooperatives by securing fair trade certification for their products and helping them establish market links.
Members from Poonakary Fishing Cooperative Society
There are inspiring stories from all around the world on how cooperatives have joined forces to contribute to sustainable consumption, production and decent work – often through cooperative-to-cooperative trade. We hear how the Poonakary Fishing Cooperative’s processed blue swimmer crab made it into California supermarkets, how Kenyan producer cooperatives’ coffee has found its way to the shelves of Coop Denmark, and how biological pineapples from a Togolese youth cooperative are being marketed in retail cooperatives across Italy. We also hear how consumer cooperatives in East Asia have developed organic and eco-label products, while educating their members about the working conditions of producers and workers, as well as on reducing food waste and plastic consumption.
The emerging consensus is that cooperative-to-cooperative trade can help lower the costs of trade, while ensuring fairer prices and better incomes for cooperative members and their communities. Opportunities exist not only in agricultural supply chains, but also in ready-made garments and other sectors. Cooperatives at both ends of the supply chain have been joining forces to have direct linkages with markets without the intervention of intermediaries, improve product traceability to ensure that no child labour is used and good production practices are maintained, and environmentally-friendly practices are adopted. At the ILO we have been working with our constituents in government, employers’ organisations and workers’ organisations to improve the social and environmental footprint of cooperatives around the world.
In Sri Lanka, the ILO has partnered with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to craft and finalise a National Cooperative Policy which can help create decent, productive and inclusive employment in the country and to empower the rural economy. The historic turnaround of the Sri Lankan cooperative movement was highlighted by President Maithripala Sirisena’s declaration of inclusion of the cooperative sector in the National Economic Council at the national event in Batticaloa to mark the International Day of Cooperatives on the 7th of July, 2018.
As the ILO strives to promote a future of work that is based on sustainable production and employment models, a priority for us in the coming years is to facilitate the development of linkages between ILO constituents from government, employers, workers and cooperators. The aim is to encourage joint action towards responsible production and consumption practices, the advancement of green economies and the promotion of decent work across supply chains.
For further information, please contact: Mr. Farzan Abul Razzak ILO Country Office for Sri Lanka and the Maldives: [email protected] , Tel: + 94112592525 – www.ilo.org/colombo
Members from Poonakary Fishing Cooperative Society
There are inspiring stories from all around the world on how cooperatives have joined forces to contribute to sustainable consumption, production and decent work – often through cooperative-to-cooperative trade. We hear how the Poonakary Fishing Cooperative’s processed blue swimmer crab made it into California supermarkets, how Kenyan producer cooperatives’ coffee has found its way to the shelves of Coop Denmark, and how biological pineapples from a Togolese youth cooperative are being marketed in retail cooperatives across Italy. We also hear how consumer cooperatives in East Asia have developed organic and eco-label products, while educating their members about the working conditions of producers and workers, as well as on reducing food waste and plastic consumption.
The emerging consensus is that cooperative-to-cooperative trade can help lower the costs of trade, while ensuring fairer prices and better incomes for cooperative members and their communities. Opportunities exist not only in agricultural supply chains, but also in ready-made garments and other sectors. Cooperatives at both ends of the supply chain have been joining forces to have direct linkages with markets without the intervention of intermediaries, improve product traceability to ensure that no child labour is used and good production practices are maintained, and environmentally-friendly practices are adopted. At the ILO we have been working with our constituents in government, employers’ organisations and workers’ organisations to improve the social and environmental footprint of cooperatives around the world.
In Sri Lanka, the ILO has partnered with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to craft and finalise a National Cooperative Policy which can help create decent, productive and inclusive employment in the country and to empower the rural economy. The historic turnaround of the Sri Lankan cooperative movement was highlighted by President Maithripala Sirisena’s declaration of inclusion of the cooperative sector in the National Economic Council at the national event in Batticaloa to mark the International Day of Cooperatives on the 7th of July, 2018.
As the ILO strives to promote a future of work that is based on sustainable production and employment models, a priority for us in the coming years is to facilitate the development of linkages between ILO constituents from government, employers, workers and cooperators. The aim is to encourage joint action towards responsible production and consumption practices, the advancement of green economies and the promotion of decent work across supply chains.
For further information, please contact: Mr. Farzan Abul Razzak ILO Country Office for Sri Lanka and the Maldives: [email protected] , Tel: + 94112592525 – www.ilo.org/colombo