The second edition of the Paris Peace Forum took place at La Grande Halle de La Villette in Paris, France, from 11 to 13 November. The event brought together stakeholders from 140 countries, with over 7,000 participants, 33 Heads of State and 12 Heads of International Organisations including the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. He participated in a panel on child labour with the French Minister of Labour Muriel Pénicaud and the OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría.

During t

he Forum, 114 projects providing local solutions were presented. Three ILO projects were among those selected: Alliance 8.7 – Global Partnership to End Forced Labour, Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking and Child Labour; COTECCO – Fight against Child Labour in the Cobalt Mining Sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); and SADA Women’s Cooperative established by 50 Turkish, Syrian and Afghani women in Gaziantep, southeast Turkey.

Among them, the SADA Women’s Cooperative was selected as one of ten projects to be scaled up and mentored by the Paris Peace Forum for the coming year. The cooperative was established in April 2019 with the support of the project “Strengthening the Resilience of Syrian Women and Girls” being jointly implemented by UN Women, ILO and ASAM. The ILO has been responsible for providing livelihood training to the crisis-affected women and supporting the establishment of their cooperative. The 50 members of the cooperative, who are trained in footwear, food and textile production, bring their own cultural and historical traditions to their products. The cooperative is an inclusive business bringing women from host and refugee communities together for collective income generation activities.