Resources on cooperative, social and solidarity economy

  1. Interview with Akkanut Wantanasombut – founder of community-based social and solidarity economy platform

    23 February 2023

    “Spotlight Interviews with Co-operators” is a series of interviews with co-operators from around the world with whom ILO officials have crossed paths in the course of their work on cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy (SSE). On this occasion, ILO interviewed Akkanut Wantanasombut, researcher at the Institute of Asia Studies at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and founder of “Tamsang-Tamsong”, a community-based social and solidarity economy platform.

  2. Brightly® – Scaling up worker cooperatives through the franchise model

    19 December 2019

    “Spotlight Interviews with Co-operators” is a series of interviews with co-operators from around the world with whom ILO officials have crossed paths during the course of their work on cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy (SSE). On this occasion, the ILO interviewed Ms. Maru Bautista, Director of the Cooperative Development Programme at the Center for Family Life, on Brightly®, the first worker cooperative franchise in the United States.

  3. ILO contributes to the deliberation on the alliance between unions and cooperatives in the US

    30 October 2019

    ILO Cooperatives Unit Manager provided a video message as a keynote to the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy in the US on how trade unions and cooperatives can work together to promote decent work for all.

  4. ILO presents international trends on worker cooperative development at the 2019 Co-op IMPACT Conference in Washington

    30 October 2019

    An ILO official participated in a panel on the scalability of the worker cooperative model and presented international trends and good practices on worker cooperative development.

  5. Siôn Whellens: Incubating worker cooperatives in the changing world of work

    29 May 2019

    “Spotlight Interviews with Co-operators” is a series of interviews with co-operators from around the world with whom ILO officials have crossed paths during the course of their work on cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy (SSE). On this occasion, ILO interviewed Mr Siôn Whellens, a member of Calverts, the London branding, design and print cooperative; a cooperative business adviser at Principle Six, a development partnership on worker and community cooperatives; and a co-founder of Worker Coop Solidarity Fund.

  6. Centre for Co-operative Studies: Building a solid knowledge base on the cooperative business model

    29 April 2019

    “Spotlight Interviews with Co-operators” is a series of interviews with co-operators from around the world with whom ILO officials have crossed paths during the course of their work on cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy (SSE). On this occasion, ILO interviewed Ms Bridget Carroll, a lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Co-operative Studies in Ireland.

  7. A Zimbabwean trade union takes a first step towards establishing a worker cooperative for its unemployed members

    26 February 2018

    Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers Union (ZIBAWU) has taken the first steps towards the establishment of a worker cooperative which will provide employment opportunities for its members who lost their jobs in 2015.

  8. Employment provision is among the biggest contributions of cooperatives to the sustainable development agenda

    31 January 2018

    "Spotlight Interviews with Co-operators" is a series of interviews with cooperative leaders from around the world with whom ILO officials have crossed paths during the course of their work with cooperatives. For this issue, Bruno Roelants, the newly elected Director-General of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), spoke to ILO COOP about his new position, the relevance of decent work to the global cooperative movement, and the role of cooperatives for the future of work.

  9. Japan Workers’ Co-operative Union: Contributing to job creation and local community development through associated work

    28 November 2017

    "Spotlight Interviews with Co-operators" is a series of interviews with cooperative leaders from around the world with whom ILO officials have crossed paths during the course of their work with cooperatives. For this issue ILO interviewed Mr Osamu Nakano, a board member and Chief of International Relation Unit of Japan Workers’ Co-operative Union (JWCU).