ILO Americas participates at the XXII Virtual Regional Conference of Cooperatives of the Americas, November 5, 2021

News | 15 November 2021
The Deputy Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the ILO, Claudia Coenjaerts participated in the XXII Virtual Regional Conference of Cooperatives of the Americas, November 5, 2021. In her presentation, she noted that the recovery outlook is complex in the region. She noted that 2021, to date, has shown low dynamism in employment. At the beginning of the year, the unemployment rate was high at around 11 per cent. Furthermore, the recovery process has been driven almost entirely by the growth of informal work, which currently represents around 70 percent of net job creation in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.

In this scenario, cooperatives offer opportunities to generate decent and productive jobs, as well as a form of organization and protection in the work environment. In the rural economy, for example, cooperatives are an essential source for promoting local and sustainable food systems. In fragile contexts, cooperatives have been an important means of supporting local communities to face the crisis in an integrated way and by strengthening local structures.