Cooperatives

  • ©ILO
A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.

The ILO views cooperatives as important in improving the living and working conditions of women and men globally as well as making essential infrastructure and services available even in areas neglected by the state and investor-driven enterprises. Cooperatives have a proven record of creating and sustaining employment – they are estimated to provide at least 279 million jobs today; they contribute to promoting decent work and advancing sustainable development goals. The ILO activities are guided by the international standard on cooperatives, the ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No.193).

As people-centered, principle driven, member owned businesses cooperatives have a long tradition of promoting equality.

Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, International Day of Cooperatives 2015

What's new

  1. Publication

    Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 - Cooperative contributions to SDG 2

    16 October 2018

  2. Countries in Focus on Statistics of Cooperatives

    Statistics on Cooperatives Country in Focus: Australia

    08 October 2018

  3. News

    ILO shares its work on SSE at GSEF 2018

    04 October 2018

List all

Highlights for October

  1. Area of work

    October, 2018

    Rural Economy

  2. Area of work

    October, 2018

    Care Provision through Cooperatives

  3. Area of work 

    October, 2018

    Statistics on Cooperatives

  4. Cooperatives 2030 Series

    October, 2018

    Transforming our world: a cooperative 2030 series

Featured publications

  1. Monthly newsletter

  2. Statistics on Cooperatives Countries in Focus series

  3. Transforming our world: A cooperative 2030 series

  4. Cooperatives and the World of Work Series 

  5. Cooperative legislation and policy

Spotlight interview with co-operators

  1. NeedsMap: Visualizing and matching social needs through an online cooperative platform in Turkey

    12 September 2018

  2. Cooperative of Associated Work Planeta Verde: Improving living conditions of waste pickers in Colombia

    23 August 2018

  3. Interview with Rudi Dalvai, President, World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO)

    20 June 2018

List all

Training Resources

  1. Start.COOP

    Start.COOP - a new training tool for launching a cooperative

  2. Think.COOP

    Think.COOP - a new orientation tool on cooperatives

  3. My.COOP - Managing your agricultural cooperative

  4. ILO SSE Academy

  5. Training resource pack for agricultural cooperatives on the elimination of hazardous child labour

  6. Cooperatives legislation and policy

  7. Project design manual

  8. MATCOM - Training for the management of cooperatives

Videos

  1. ILO Message for the "Sowing the Seeds: Platform Cooperativism for Asia" Conference in Hong Kong

  2. ILO Statement for the 2nd International Forum on Cooperative Law

  3. Cooperatives and Future of work

  4. Cooperatives ensure no one is left behind

COOP Champions

  1. COOP Champions

    Sandra Yu, ILO DWT Bangkok

    29 November 2017

    COOP Champions features ILO colleagues from around the world working on cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises. It highlights their contributions, and shares highlights of their experiences, current work, and future aspirations.

  2. COOP Champions

    Yumi Nabeshima, ILO Tokyo

    26 September 2017

    COOP Champions features ILO colleagues from around the world working on cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises. It highlights their contributions, and shares highlights of their experiences, current work, and future aspirations.

List all