Resources on cooperative, social and solidarity economy

  1. © Esneyder Gutiérrez Cardona 2024
    Our cooperative has dignified the work of waste pickers

    30 June 2022

    More than 20 years ago, Martha Elena Iglesias helped found a waster picker cooperative in Colombia called Planeta Verde. Over time, the cooperative has transformed how the local community views waste pickers and a sense of solidarity has developed amongst its members.

  2. © Francisco Cruz Anaya 2024
    Good coffee, safe lives

    28 April 2022

    Briseida Venegas Ramos is president of a female-led coffee cooperative in Veracruz, Mexico. She teaches farmers how to prevent accidents while working.

  3. ILO COOP/SSE participates in the Strategic Workshop “Toward an action plan to eliminate child labour and to promote decent work in solid waste management systems in Mexico”

    28 May 2021

    Head of ILO’s COOP/SSE Unit highlighted the role that cooperatives play for informal waste-pickers to access social protection, generate negotiation power with public and private stakeholders and to formalize their work.

  4. Green Agenda

    26 October 2020

    Climate change is affecting the world of work in various ways, with some new jobs being created and transformed (e.g. renewable energy), while other jobs are being lost or replaced. Given these changes, cooperatives are emerging as economic actors in climate change adaptation (e.g. mutual insurance for crops; agricultural cooperatives supporting diversification of crops or improved watershed management) as well as mitigation (e.g. renewable energy cooperatives, forestry and agroforestry cooperatives) across countries. In urban areas, cooperatives exist in waste management systems, particularly in the form of waste picker cooperatives in countries such as India, Brazil, Colombia and South Africa. Cooperatives across sectors ranging from agriculture to energy are also growingly greening their operations. In the renewable energy industry they have a number of competitive advantages, including democratic local control over energy production and use, the capacity to create local employment, and reasonable pricing.

  5. COPAC organizes an International Day of Cooperatives event on cooperatives and climate action

    22 July 2020

    ILO’s Enterprises Department Director and Chair of the Committee on Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC), Mr van Vuuren, participated as a speaker in a virtual event organized on the occasion of the International Day of Cooperatives focusing on climate action on 9 July 2020.

  6. ILO COOP/SSE 100 Webinar III - Cooperatives for Climate Action

    06 July 2020

    The webinar focused on climate action, the theme for this year’s International Day of Cooperatives. Four speakers presented on the role of cooperatives in climate change mitigation and adaptation and discussed ways to scale up efforts toward a greener and better future.

  7. ILO COOP contributes to the green jobs and business models course in the waste sector

    19 November 2019

  8. A first step towards improving working conditions of waste pickers in Senegal

    27 September 2019

    Under the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), the ILO is supporting an initiative to improve working conditions in the waste management sector, by helping to organize informal economy workers into cooperatives.

  9. Waste pickers’ cooperatives and social and solidarity economy organizations

    20 August 2019

    Waste pickers make significant contributions to public health, sanitation, and the environment by promoting resource circulation and reducing the amount of landfill. However, they are often not legally recognized as workers and suffer from poor working conditions and lack of social protection. This brief highlights the role of waste pickers' cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations (SSEOs) in integrating and formalizing the work of waste pickers in the recycling value chain and improving their working conditions.

  10. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 - Cooperative contributions to SDG 14

    26 July 2019

    This brief is part of the Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 series produced by the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC). Through a series of 17 briefs, one for each Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), COPAC hopes to raise awareness about the significant contributions of cooperative enterprises towards achieving the 2030 Agenda in a sustainable, inclusive and responsible way, and encourage continued support for their efforts. This brief in the series focuses on This brief focuses on SDG 14 – Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.