At the open dialogue, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Mr Pablo Ruíz, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Mr. Pablo Mieres, the President of the National Institute of Cooperatives (Inacoop), Mr. Martín Fernández, the Director of the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation, Mr. Mariano Berro, and the president of the Uruguayan Confederation of Cooperative Entities, Ms. Alicia Maneiro all underlined the importance of the SSE for the country.

They also made remarks on the importance this sector has for a just transition, the fight against climate change and hot topics like informality and gender discrimination. The meeting benefited from the presence of international experts, like Mr. Jokin Días Arsuaga from the Basque country (Spain) who related the advance of the SSE in his region and discussed positive correlations with the fight against inequality and raising quality of life indexes.

Ms. Olga Orozco from the ILO, shared highlights of the conclusions of the general discussion on decent work and the SSE from the 110th International Labour Conference. She reflected on the tripartite definition of the SSE, challenges and opportunities generated by the diversity of business models and the relationship with gender equality, just transition and resilience to crisis.

Ms. Orozco highlighted the first seven-year strategy and action plan (SAP) on decent work and the SSE which was adopted at the 346th Governing Body meeting of the ILO on November 2022. She noted that the strategy and action plan is based on five key operating principles:

• Grounding in international labour standards and social dialogue.
• Gender equality and non-discrimination.
• Respect for SSE values and complementarity between SSE entities and other enterprises.
• Context-specificity with respect to nations and regions.
• Adaptability vis a vis changing circumstances.

She pointed out to the three objectives of the SAP, namely:

• Improved understanding of realities and needs related to decent work and the SSE which focuses on three output areas on research, statistics and knowledge management;
• Increased capacity to promote decent work and the SSE which has three outputs at the societal, organizational and individual levels; and
• Enhanced coherence on decent work and the SSE which includes three outputs on policy, programmatic and budgetary coherence.

This ambitious strategy and action plan will require the ILO to work as one, and in close coordination with its constituents and in partnership with SSE stakeholders around the world, she concluded.