"ILO needs to act as a catalyst to advance social and solidarity economy"

COOP talked with the new Director of the ILO’s Enterprises Department, Mr Vic van Vuuren, on the role of sustainable enterprises and social economy for the future of work.

News from the field

Cooperatives support Syrians and local communities in Turkey

ILO held a multi-stakeholder meeting to discuss the role of cooperatives in supporting Syrian refugees and local communities and to develop cooperation in this regard. Read the full story in English and Turkish.

Waste pickers in Turkey explore cooperative option for formalization

A joint workshop by the ILO Office for Turkey and the Ministry of Customs and Trade General Directorate of Cooperatives, held in Ankara, underlined the role of cooperatives in gathering waste pickers under the same roof to ensure their access to decent and formal work. Read the full story in English and Turkish.

Cooperatives reach out to Syrian refugees in Jordan

The ILO is working with agricultural and multipurpose rural cooperatives in Irbid and Mafraq governorates in Jordan in order to facilitate the process of work permit application and issuance for Syrian workers in agriculture. An ILO COOP mission to Jordan took note of the importance of work permits as an initial step toward recognition of the Syrian workers’ right to work. However, more remains to be done to improve livelihoods opportunities for Syrian refugees. Areas for action identified include: Improving the regulatory environment around cooperatives; recognition of cooperatives as local economic actors; and strengthening of the management and project development capacities of the cooperatives as local economic actors for joint projects between Jordanians and Syrian refugees.

Europe supports Greece in advancing social and solidarity economy

The ILO has fielded two missions to Athens at the end of 2015 to work with the Greek constituents to identify the areas for improvement in the cooperative and social and solidarity economy laws in the country. Since then the Greek government has been working on revising the social and solidarity economy law. In late July 2016, the Greek government asked for urgent assistance in coordinating comments on the draft social and social economy law which focuses mainly on social cooperatives and worker cooperatives. With a tight deadline, the German Greek Assembly got on board to translate the draft law into English. A group of European cooperative and social and solidarity economy law experts were mobilized to review the English law. In time for the deadline CECOP, Social Economy Europe and Cooperatives Europe had submitted letters with comments on the draft law to the Ministry. The comments from CECOP specifically highlighted the role of the ILO and its Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193).

Spotlight on cooperatives

Youth Deal Scientific Research, Development and Education Cooperative, Izmir, Turkey

ILO COOP is starting a section on our website and e-news on innovative cooperative experiences from around the world that we have recently engaged with for learning and future collaboration. The first cooperative featured in the series is the Youth Deal Cooperative from Turkey.

Cooperatives respond in time of natural disasters

In time of a natural disaster, cooperative movement has taken a key role in providing livelihood support at the forefront of post-disaster relief and recovery, including through provision of social protection and decent jobs. At the moment cooperatives are involved in crisis response following the massive 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck central part of Italy in August. Other examples of cooperative movement engagement in providing support after the devastation by an earthquake include Nepal and Japan.

Publications

Public policies for the Social and Solidarity Economy: Towards a favourable environment

The ILO has released a series of policy papers on social and solidarity economy (SSE). These papers study the cases of the Philippines and Nicaragua, where public policies, understood in the broad sense as legal frameworks, related to credit, taxation, training, education, health, infrastructure and public tendering have been formulated specifically to support the SSE.

Organizing Workers in the Informal Economy: ILO ACTRAV Policy Brief

ILO Bureau of Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) published a policy brief to assist workers’ organizations in understanding and tackling the injustices and decent work deficits associated with employment in the informal economy. It provides information and proposes strategies that can be used to organize, protect and promote the rights and interests of informal economy workers. The policy brief highlights the role of cooperative enterprises as a way to organize workers in the informal economy, providing examples of Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) as well as the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), India.