Governments, as well as employers’ and workers’ organizations from around the world agree to promote the creation of cooperatives within the framework of the ILO
Cooperatives are widely included in the Conclusions of the ILO Committee on SMEs and Employment Creation. They are mentioned in terms of clustering, networking, value chain and local economic development, as well as service providers to SMEs and sectoral development. This text is the result of the discussions which took place in a dedicated Committee of the 104th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) held from 1 to 13 June in Geneva.
16 June 2015
As a specific focus, promoting the creation of producers’ and workers’ cooperatives is explicitly called for. One whole paragraph is fully dedicated to cooperatives: “The work of the ILO on cooperative enterprises should be expanded to develop intervention models to provide support to enterprises and trade unions in the provision of finance and business services that are scalable and replicable. The ILO should continue and expand upon its technical assistance on policy and legislative reform of cooperatives as outlined in the Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193)”.
Read Bruno Roelants’ full speech at the Committee on SMEs and Employment Creation on 2 June here.