Highlights on the cooperative, social and solidarity economy

Earlier milestones (1919–2019)

• 1919–1949
  • 1920: The GB approved the establishment of the Section on Co-operation at its third session, on the proposal of the ILO Director: "The Peace Treaty requires that the International Labour Office should not only concern itself with conditions of work, but also with the condition of the workers. It is in the form of co-operation that this idea is best seen in popular circles. The Section on Co-operation would not limit itself only to food questions; it might also study conditions - of housing, questions touching the workers' leisure, questions of travelling facilities (workmen's tickets), etc. Moreover, co-operation already constitutes an important international movement with which the Office must necessarily concern itself in its own interests.”
  • 1946: The ILO Constitution, Article 12, Paragraph 3 was amended: “The International Labour Organisation may make suitable arrangements for such consultation as it may think desirable with recognized non-governmental international organisations, including international organisations of employers, workers, agriculturists and cooperators”.
• 1950–1999
  • 1966: The ILO adopted the Co-operatives (Developing Countries) Recommendation, 1966 (No. 127), which recognized cooperatives as key instruments for economic, social and cultural development in developing countries. It called on governments to support cooperatives through enabling policies, legislation, education, financial and administrative aid—while safeguarding their independence.
  • 1969: By the ILO's 50th Anniversary, technical cooperation in the field of cooperative promotion had expanded significantly. Of all the funds allocated by the UNDP to the ILO, 15 per cent was spent on assistance to cooperative projects. More than 120 ILO cooperative experts worked in nearly 70 countries.
• 2000–2009
  • 2002: The ILO's Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193) was approved at the 90th Session of the International Labour Conference, replacing the Cooperatives (Developing Countries) Recommendation (No 127), 1966. Since its adoption, more than 120 countries have used the Recommendation to support the revision and development of national policies and laws, and it has contributed to regional and subregional uniform model laws.
• 2010–2019
  • 2010: The ILO and its International Training Centre launched a Social and Solidarity Economy Academy in Turin. Subsequent editions were held in Canada (2011), Morocco (2013), Brazil (2014), South Africa (2015) and Mexico (2015).
  • 2012: Launch of Managing your agricultural cooperative (My.COOP), a training package aimed at improving the management of agricultural cooperative enterprises. It has been translated into ten languages and adapted in multiple countries.
  • 2013: The 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians adopted a Resolution concerning further work on statistics of cooperatives.
  • 2013: The ILO co-founded the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy and became its Chair in 2014. By June 2021, it included 19 UN agencies as members and 10 civil society organizations as observers.
  • 2015: The ILO and ICA signed a revised partnership agreement to support the role of cooperatives in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, updating an earlier 2004 agreement under the Millennium Development Goals.
  • 2018: At the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, the Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives were adopted.
  • 2019: The ILO Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work called for enabling environments for cooperatives and SSE.
  • 2019: Marking the ILO Centenary, a conference was co-organized with ICA, and a new MoU was signed to promote a human-centred future of work with cooperatives fully engaged.