Initiative on advancing the Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives

The ‘Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives’ were adopted at the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in October 2018, which were then approved by the Governing Body of the ILO in March 2019. The guidelines are a first step toward an international norm on statistics of cooperatives.

The Guidelines cover concepts and definitions, types of cooperatives, statistical units, and other relevant topics, including work in cooperatives. The Guidelines also contains information on ways of collecting, tabulating, and analyzing statistical data on cooperatives.

They call for the ILO to conduct further work on the implementation including through undertaking methodological studies, developing measures to assess the economic contribution of cooperatives, and dealing with issues of cooperative-like and non-registered establishments.

This initiative is part of a larger project on Strengthening Social and Solidarity Economy Knowledge Base supported by the government of the Republic of Korea. It aims to evaluate and make recommendations on the Guidelines. Five countries - Costa Rica, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Tanzania and Türkiye are part of the initiative, testing the applicability and implementation of the guidelines to national contexts.

Project outcomes:

The Project aims to achieve the following outcomes:

Outcome 1: Improved statistics on cooperatives globally

The project will conduct studies in five countries, that will include comparison of the statistical definition, classification on the type of cooperatives, measures of the socio-economic and environmental impact of cooperatives, data collection methodologies in national cases to the Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives. The findings will contribute to evaluate and improve the Guidelines, aimed at setting an international standard on cooperative statistics.

Outcome 2: Facilitate policy dialogue

The project will establish national advisory committees in five countries, consisting of national statistical offices (NSOs), relevant public ministries, cooperative confederations and research institutions to inform and create policy dialogue on the improving statistics on cooperatives.

By focusing on these outcomes, the project aims to contribute to a better understanding of cooperatives and facilitate evidence-based decision-making at both national and global levels.

Target beneficiaries:

• NSOs, public ministries responsible for formulating policies related to cooperatives, cooperative confederations, and research institutions;
• Employers’ and workers’ organizations, cooperative and wider SSE institutions in the five countries; and
• Staff of relevant ILO departments and field offices who are working with ILO constituents in developing and strengthening statistics on cooperatives