The project on Strengthening the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Knowledge Base includes a component on statistics of cooperatives. The project, expected to be launched in July 2021, aims to facilitate the development and use of a coherent, harmonized and standardized set of statistics on cooperatives. It will conduct pilot testing in five countries (Republic of Korea, Italy, Turkey, Costa Rica, Tanzania) and develop a manual on cooperative statistics for presentation and discussion at the 21st ICLS in 2023 or 2028.

ILO COOP officials, Mr. Dong Il Choi, Cooperatives and Social & Solidarity Economy (SSE) Development Specialist and Ms. Heejin Ahn, Junior Technical Officer, held several meetings with Korean stakeholders to introduce the project’s objectives, and to assess the state of statistics on cooperatives in the Republic of Korea in relation to the Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives, and to explore collaboration opportunities on the project.

Mr. Choi met with Mr. Hong Seob Kim, Director of Cooperatives Policy Division in the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) to discuss the implementation plan of the Korea Cooperatives Survey 2021, and secure MOEF’s commitment in supporting Korea’s participation in the pilot test and drafting of the Manual. It was agreed that the project would be presented during the Social Economy fair in Gwangju, South Korea in July 2021.

Mr. Juyeop Ahn, Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Labour Institute (KLI), specialist in labour statistics, and the main lead of the implementation of Korea Cooperatives Survey 2021, will participate in the project to ensure the successful implementation of the pilot test, and produce Korea’s case study to highlight good practices and suggest ways forward in the implementation of the Guidelines.

ILO COOP officials are exploring additional collaboration opportunities with Statistics Korea and the President’s Office. Similar efforts are underway in the other pilot countries to secure the national stakeholders’ (i.e. relevant ministries/departments, National Statistics Offices, cooperative federations, researchers) engagement in the project.