Ms Simel Esim was invited to speak at an expert session of the tripartite international training on evidence-based policy making for decent work organized by ILO’s Research Department. The training was designed to strengthen the capacities and skills of ILO’s constituents. It aimed to provide them with the instruments and tools to find, evaluate, and understand the relevant evidence for policy making.

Ms Esim’s presentation on “Appraising evidence on social and solidarity economy” used the example of the proposed universal definition of the SSE was developed for the report of the International Labour Office on Decent Work and the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE). She noted the report, developed to inform the general discussion at the 110th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC), derived the proposed universal definition of the SSE for discussion based on a review of the values, principles, and organizational forms of the SSE mentioned in adopted SSE legislation from around the world.

She emphasized that most of the adopted SSE legislation reviewed built on assessments and policy dialogue with key stakeholders in prioritizing findings and recommendations from the assessments. She pointed out that the Office developed a Legal compendium on the social and solidarity economy that provides the background information on how the Office Report developed the proposed definition of the SSE based on a review of SSE legislation. The compendium presents and synthesizes the SSE values, principles, organizational forms and policy measures mentioned in the legislation.

Ms Esim also noted how currently reliable and comparable statistics on cooperatives are missing in most countries of the world. In order to rectify this situation, the 19th Session of the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) adopted a Resolution concerning further work on statistics of cooperatives that called for the Office to carry out further developmental work on the measurement of cooperatives.

In line with the Resolution, the ILO Department of Statistics, the Cooperatives Unit at the ILO Enterprises Department and the members of the Technical Working Group at Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) worked together on bringing conceptual and methodological clarity on statistics of cooperatives. This led to the adoption of guidelines on statistics of cooperatives, which were adopted in 2018 at the 20th ICLS. These guidelines aim to facilitate the development of a set of statistics on cooperatives that will provide an adequate information base for a wide range of descriptive, analytical and policy purposes related to cooperatives. The ILO is currently evaluating the information on the methods of collecting, organizing and analyzing statistical data on cooperatives in the light of the guidelines in five countries in collaboration with its constituents, and cooperative researchers and practitioners.

Ms Esim concluded her words by pointing out that in developing evidence based policy making in the world of work, the ILO’s historical and persisting comparative advantages in international labour standards and social dialogue must remain at the heart of the ILO’s work.

The session was well received by the participants. In the ensuing discussion questions were asked on the challenges to the adoption of the SSE in countries where the framework might not be so familiar. They also reflected on the relevance of the SSE in the transition to the formal economy. They appreciated the examples of innovation including cooperative to cooperative trade, and the development of SSE units in the care and platform economies.