Resources on cooperative, social and solidarity economy

  1. ILO supports crisis-hit Sri Lankan fishers

    02 April 2023

    Vulnerable members of Sri Lanka’s fisher communities in the country’s northern province are gaining much-needed income at a time of economic crisis.

  2. We are earning an income, navigating a crisis and coming together as a farming community

    08 February 2023

    As Sri Lanka faces its worst economic crisis, people with existing vulnerabilities have been pushed further into poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity. With ILO support, vulnerable members of farming communities in the country’s northern province are earning an income by completing irrigation, flooding, and farmland access related maintenance work in their lands.

  3. Resilience in a Downturn: The power of financial cooperatives

    20 March 2013

    This report reviews the performance of financial cooperatives, looking in particular at the aftermath of the 2007-2008 crisis and the continuing long austerity period. It explains why financial cooperatives have proven to be more resilient pointing to the specificities of the cooperative model of enterprise.

  4. Economic and other benefits of the entreprenuers’ cooperative as a specific form of enterprise cluster

    03 January 2011

    This book presents entrepreneurs’ cooperatives - cooperatives formed by groups of entrepreneurs, independently owned businesses, tradesmen, professionals, or by municipalities and other public bodies. It shows that cooperatives have helped small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in many countries to become and remain competitive. Although this form of business clustering is not wide spread, there are signs that its development and entrepreneurship effects are gradually being considered. This study analyses the set up and the economic, social and employment benefits of entrepreneurs‘ cooperatives as well as the reasons why their use has not spread. It further indicates those features which allow for replication of the model elsewhere and concludes with a number of recommendations.

  5. Resilience of the Cooperative Business Model in Times of Crisis

    10 June 2009

    The financial and ensuing economic crisis has had negative impacts on the majority of enterprises; however, cooperative enterprises around the world are showing resilience to the crisis. Financial cooperatives remain financially sound; consumer cooperatives are reporting increased turnover; worker cooperatives are seeing growth as people choose the cooperative form of enterprise to respond to new economic realities. This report provides historical evidence and current empirical evidence that proves that the cooperative model of enterprise survives crisis, but more importantly that it is a sustainable form of enterprise able to withstand crisis, maintaining the livelihoods of the communities in which they operate. It further suggests ways in which the ILO can strengthen its activity in the promotion of cooperatives as a means to address the current crisis and avert future crisis.