This conference will showcase the findings from the cooperative statistics component of the Strengthening Social and Solidarity Economy Knowledge Base project funded by the Ministry of Employment and Labour (MoEL) of the Republic of Korea. National Researchers from five countries - Korea, Italy, Costa Rica, Türkiye and Tanzania, will present their analysis on the statistics available and used in each country related to cooperatives in comparison to the ILO’s Guidelines concerning Statistics of Cooperatives. Referring to the country findings, recommendations will be made to the guidelines and on the implementation of the guidelines.

It will:

• Showcase findings from the five countries (Korea, Italy, Costa Rica, Türkiye and Tanzania) and assess the applicability of ILO’s guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives to national contexts;
• Shed light on the importance of having an international standard on statistics of cooperatives, in particular on the number of cooperatives, types of cooperatives, members, employees and work in cooperatives, and their contribution to the economy and its members; and
• Bring together different partners from national statistical offices (NSOs), public ministries, cooperative federations/confederations, unions, research institutes and others, interested in developing statistics on cooperatives, to share knowledge and further strengthen partnership

The event is planned to take place in coordination with the Korean 5th Social Economy Fair in Busan, Republic of Korea (from 30th June to 2nd July 2023). The event will be conducted both in person and online, with simultaneous translation provided (English to Korean).

A study trip in Korea, including visit to the iCOOP’s Goesan Natural Dream Park and participation to the CIRIEC conference on Social and Solidarity Economy, will follow from 1st to 6th of July 2023.