The significance of cooperatives in job creation and local economic development is widely recognized. Cooperatives play a unique and special role in promoting sustainable economic growth, high-quality employment, decent work, and social justice. This is because the cooperative ownership model and democratic governance principles ensure that the activities of cooperatives are driven by the needs of their members as workers, consumers, and members of society.
The cooperative model provides a way for producers, workers, and consumers to tackle many of the challenges they encounter in the rapidly changing world of work and in society more generally. These challenges include demographic changes, aging, migration, climate change, and technological advances that heavily impact the nature and organization of work. The areas where the cooperative model is considered to have a particularly positive effect include the transition from informal to formal economic activities and employment, growing inequality in terms of access to housing, services, and well-paid employment, and the re-organization and flexibilization of work driven by technological development.
Several studies and publications have provided evidence of both the potential and achievements of cooperatives in addressing these challenges and promoting equitable and sustainable growth, as well as economic resilience and stability during crises. However, comprehensive statistical information is needed on the contribution and role of cooperatives in promoting economic growth, resilience and stability, sustainable development, employment and decent work, transition from the informal to the formal economy, re-organization and flexibilization of work reflecting technological change and the future of work, and equitable and affordable access to housing, social and financial services.
The second global report on employment in cooperatives published by the International Organization of Industrial, Artisanal and Service Producer Cooperatives (CICOPA) in 2017 estimated that at least 279.4 million people were employed in or within the scope of cooperatives, which is more than 9 per cent of the world’s employed population.
The ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193) emphasizes the need to improve national statistics on cooperatives to help develop and implement policies promoting cooperatives. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development confirms the role of cooperatives as a means of implementation towards achieving the goals.
