The global advisory committee of the ILO’s initiative on statistics of cooperatives holds its kick-off meeting

The global advisory committee of the ILO initiative on implementing the Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives held its kick-off meeting.

News | 28 September 2022
The global advisory committee (GAC) of the initiative on implementing the Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives held its kick-off meeting on September 20, 2022. The GAC members consist of experts on cooperative statistics that will guide the consultants in assessing whether the Guidelines fit the realities in five countries (Costa Rica, Italy, Republic of Korea, Turkiye, and Tanzania) towards making recommendations on the Guidelines.

Ms. Simel Esim, Head of the Cooperatives Unit of ILO, welcomed the participants and provided background to the initiative and the purpose of the GAC.

Mr. Dong Il Choi, Technical Specialist in the Cooperatives Unit of ILO, presented the implementation plan such as outputs, timeline, and the international conference in 2023.

The national consultants presented the landscape of cooperative statistics in the five countries, and the progress made, including a summary of the national advisory committee meetings, and their workplan.

GAC members provided feedback to the national cases and suggestions such as producing a comparable table to translate national classification of cooperatives into those in the Guidelines. This is to better assess its alignment, and whether any changes need to be made in the Guidelines.

The GAC members consist of five members: Marie Bouchard (CIRIEC), Hyungsik Eum (ICA), Yonca Gurbuzer (FAO), Sylvain Schtagne (Worker’s group) and David Hunter (consultant and former statistician at the ILO). The GAC will meet five times during the project duration (2021-23). The next meeting is scheduled on November 15, 2022.

The initiative on cooperative statistics is a component of the Strengthening the Social and Solidarity Economy Knowledge Base project, funded by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Republic of Korea. Its aim is to ensure the statistics on cooperatives are reliable, coherent, and internationally comparable, in order to quantify cooperatives’ economic and social impact.