KoSEA and ILO convene a second virtual interim research workshop with country researchers for the ILO project on strengthening SSE policy in Asia

Officials of the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency (KoSEA), and ILO staff members met online with country researchers for the project to discuss the feedback from the second drafts of the case studies to prepare for presentation in a research conference that will take place on September 22

News | 26 August 2020
Since 2019, ILO COOP has been working on the project for Strengthening Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Policy in Asia with the collaboration of a project implementing agency, Korean Social Enterprise Promotion Agency (KoSEA). The kick-off meeting for the research phase of the project took place in November 2019 in Yogjakarta, Indonesia for a discussion of the methodological framework in mapping SSE organizations. In May 2020, the researchers met virtually with officials from KoSEA and ILO COOP staff members for an initial interim workshop to discuss the first drafts of the case studies from six countries, namely China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

A second interim workshop took place on 21 August 2020 for the researchers from the six countries to share the second drafts of their studies. Staff members of ILO COOP, took part in the call along with officials from KoSEA.

The workshop began with Professor Euiyoung Kim at Seoul National University (SNU), the research manager providing a brief update on the progress of the research since the first workshop held in May this year. This was followed by each researcher presenting the revisions that they have undertaken based on the feedback from the ILO and KoSEA on their first drafts. Each presentation was followed by discussion where the participants emphasized the need to further fine-tune the methodological framework to ensure consistent results across different countries. The ILO officials also presented their suggestions to strengthen the research drafts notably by incorporating important issues including gender equality, informal economy, job creation and the impact of COVID-19.

During the following session SNU team presented their preliminary observations from the findings emerging from the six-country mapping initiative on SSE organizations in Asia. They presented the key observations emerging from the comparison of the legal and institutional landscape for SSE across six countries. They also noted the strategies needed to strengthen SSE in Asia with the engagement of multiple stakeholders from the public and private sectors. Findings from the research and related policy recommendations will be presented and discussed at an ILO/KoSEA/SNU joint research conference on 22nd September in Seoul with international participants joining online.