ILO participates in the research conference on measuring and reporting sustainability performance of enterprises
5 June 2019
From 3-4 June 2019, an international conference organized by UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) on “Measuring and Reporting Sustainability Performance: Are Corporations and SSE Organizations Meeting the SDG Challenge ?” took place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. This conference was an activity undertaken under a four-year project on sustainability measurement and reporting among corporations and social and solidarity economy enterprises for the SDGs. Funded by the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Study established by the SK Group, a South Korean technology conglomerate, the conference brought together key stakeholders from UN agencies, national policy making bodies and practitioners in the measurement and reporting fields to discuss good practices, key concerns, and ways forward in improving measurement and reporting on social dimensions of sustainable development.
On the first day of the event, Simel Esim, the head of Cooperative Unit at the ILO, gave welcome and opening remarks along with other speakers, James Zhan, the Director of UNCTAD and Suk Kwon NA, the president of Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Study. In her remarks, Ms Esim highlighted decent work in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Focusing on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8, she noted that achieving decent work is interrelated with other goals such as no poverty (SDG 1), no hunger (SDG 2), gender equality (SDG 5), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10). She also spoke about the role of cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy organizations (SSE) in advancing the SDGs in general and SDG8 in particular. She concluded by emphasizing the importance of harmonized, reliable and comparable statistics as supported by international standards. In this context she introduced the adoption of the guidelines concerning statistics on cooperatives in October 2018 at the 20th ICLS (International Conference on Labour Statisticians) as an important first step.
On the second day, Ms Esim presented in the panel on perspectives and methodologies from SSE enterprises and organizations in relation to impact indicators. In her presentation, she pointed out the importance of moving beyond the currently fragmented landscape of concepts, definitions, and methodologies toward the participatory development of a coherent international framework on SSE statistics. She underlined the need for starting with a framework that builds on producer and user dialogue between national statistical offices, responsible government ministries and SSE institutions in the development of statistics measuring the nature and impact of the SSE before talking about indicators. To elaborate her points, she gave the example of international standard setting process on the informal economy. She also noted the need for building on the standard setting work around statistics on cooperatives for establishing similar standards on the wider SSE.
On the occasion of the conference, a side meeting was held between the conference participants who are members of the COPAC Technical Working Group (TWG) on the cooperative statistics together and ILO COOP Unit and STATISTICS Departments. In the meeting, participants shared their views and thoughts on the steps that need to be undertaken in the follow-up to the adoption of the guidelines concerning statistics on cooperatives. They also exchanged their plans in the implementation of the guidelines. Highlights from the discussion will be shared at the upcoming COPAC board meeting on 27th of June in Geneva.
On the first day of the event, Simel Esim, the head of Cooperative Unit at the ILO, gave welcome and opening remarks along with other speakers, James Zhan, the Director of UNCTAD and Suk Kwon NA, the president of Centre for Social Entrepreneurship Study. In her remarks, Ms Esim highlighted decent work in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Focusing on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8, she noted that achieving decent work is interrelated with other goals such as no poverty (SDG 1), no hunger (SDG 2), gender equality (SDG 5), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10). She also spoke about the role of cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy organizations (SSE) in advancing the SDGs in general and SDG8 in particular. She concluded by emphasizing the importance of harmonized, reliable and comparable statistics as supported by international standards. In this context she introduced the adoption of the guidelines concerning statistics on cooperatives in October 2018 at the 20th ICLS (International Conference on Labour Statisticians) as an important first step.
On the second day, Ms Esim presented in the panel on perspectives and methodologies from SSE enterprises and organizations in relation to impact indicators. In her presentation, she pointed out the importance of moving beyond the currently fragmented landscape of concepts, definitions, and methodologies toward the participatory development of a coherent international framework on SSE statistics. She underlined the need for starting with a framework that builds on producer and user dialogue between national statistical offices, responsible government ministries and SSE institutions in the development of statistics measuring the nature and impact of the SSE before talking about indicators. To elaborate her points, she gave the example of international standard setting process on the informal economy. She also noted the need for building on the standard setting work around statistics on cooperatives for establishing similar standards on the wider SSE.
On the occasion of the conference, a side meeting was held between the conference participants who are members of the COPAC Technical Working Group (TWG) on the cooperative statistics together and ILO COOP Unit and STATISTICS Departments. In the meeting, participants shared their views and thoughts on the steps that need to be undertaken in the follow-up to the adoption of the guidelines concerning statistics on cooperatives. They also exchanged their plans in the implementation of the guidelines. Highlights from the discussion will be shared at the upcoming COPAC board meeting on 27th of June in Geneva.