ILO COOP/SSE and ICA Brussels teams exchange on priority work areas and potential collaboration

On 16 March 2022, staff members from the Cooperatives, Social and Solidarity Economy Unit of the ILO (ILO COOP/SSE) and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) Headquarters in Brussels held a meeting in Geneva to exchange on priority areas of work and potential collaboration.

News | 31 March 2022
The ICA staff provided an update on the main areas of follow up to the World Cooperative Congress that took place in December 2021. They highlighted the ICA Cooperative Identity Advisory Group (CIAG) which is tasked to work on surveying cooperatives worldwide with the aim to know whether the cooperative identity is well understood, if it has stood the test of time and whether any changes to the Statement are necessary.

The ILO staff provided an update on the preparations for the 110th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) where a general discussion is scheduled to take place on “Decent Work and the Social and Solidarity Economy”. It was noted that a regional meeting is scheduled to take place in collaboration with the ICA Americas (April 5, 2022) marking the 20th anniversary of the adoption of ILO’s Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193) and providing an overview on the upcoming ILC discussion on “Decent Work and the Social and Solidarity Economy”. It was pointed out that consultations are under way between the ICA Asia Pacific region to organize a similar regional meeting in coordination with ILO Delhi and ILO Colombo for South and Southeast Asia.

Collaboration opportunities between the ILO and ICA on advancing statistics on cooperatives were also explored. The ILO staff briefed the ICA representatives of the ILO’s initiative on statistics of cooperatives that focuses on testing the international guidelines concerning the statistics of cooperatives. Potential areas for collaboration with the representatives of the ICA around this initiative, including through the national and global advisory groups. Both parties agreed to the need to avoid duplication of efforts. It was also agreed that disseminating key outputs in national languages would be valuable in bringing national stakeholders on statistics of cooperatives including national statistics offices, ILO Constituents and cooperative researchers and organizations on board.