Cooperatives

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A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.

The ILO views cooperatives as important in improving the living and working conditions of women and men globally as well as making essential infrastructure and services available even in areas neglected by the state and investor-driven enterprises. Cooperatives have a proven record of creating and sustaining employment – they are estimated to provide at least 279 million jobs today; they contribute to promoting decent work and advancing sustainable development goals. The ILO activities are guided by the international standard on cooperatives, the ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No.193).

As people-centered, principle driven, member owned businesses cooperatives have a long tradition of promoting equality.

Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, International Day of Cooperatives 2015

What's new

  1. News

    ILO shares its orientation tool on coops with indigenous women entrepreneurs at WIPO training

    18 November 2019

  2. Publication

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

    14 November 2019

  3. Publication

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

    14 November 2019

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Focus on this November

  1. ILO's work on cooperatives in Africa

  2. Cooperating out of Child Labour

  3. A cooperative 2030

Featured publications

  1. Monthly newsletter

  2. Statistics on Cooperatives Countries in Focus series

  3. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 series

  4. Cooperatives and the World of Work Series 

  5. Cooperative legislation and policy

Spotlight interview with co-operators

  1. OCB: Promoting and innovating in cooperative enterprises in Brazil

    30 September 2019

  2. GDA Pure Nature: Empowering rural women thorough a cheese making cooperative in Tunisia

    07 August 2019

  3. StreetNet International: Organizing street vendors towards formalization and economic empowerment

    16 July 2019

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Training Resources

  1. Start.COOP

  2. Think.COOP

  3. My.COOP - Managing your agricultural cooperative

  4. ApexFinCoop – Advance Policy and Effectiveness for Financial Cooperative Apexes

  5. ILO SSE Academy

  6. Training resource pack for agricultural cooperatives on the elimination of hazardous child labour

  7. Cooperatives legislation and policy

  8. Project design manual

  9. MATCOM - Training for the management of cooperatives

Videos

  1. ILO Our.Coop Training Package

  2. ILO Director-General Guy Ryder – International Day of Cooperatives, 2019

  3. Cooperatives for decent work - International Day of Cooperatives 2019

  4. ILO-ICA Joint Conference on Cooperatives and the Future of Work

COOP Champions

  1. COOP Champions

    Kerryn Krige, ILO DWT/CO-Pretoria

    22 July 2019

    COOP Champions features ILO colleagues from around the world working on cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises. It highlights their contributions, and shares highlights of their experiences, current work, and future aspirations.

  2. COOP Champions

    John Bliek, Enterprises Specialist at ILO Office for the Andean Countries

    18 April 2019

    COOP Champions features ILO colleagues from around the world working on cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises. It highlights their contributions, and shares highlights of their experiences, current work, and future aspirations.

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