Offered by the International Centre for Co-operative Management at Saint Mary’s University and hosted at the J. Dobrila University of Pula (Croatia) the course explored links between cooperative law, Co-operative Identity (ICA 1995), and sustainable development.

Led by Hagen Henry, a cooperative law expert, a visiting scholar at the University of Helsinki and Chairman of the International Co-operative Alliance’s Cooperative Law Committee, the course included guest speakers in economics and law. The speakers explored: how values and principles are translated into legal rules and legal practice; what types of rules are fitting, and what may cause ‘degeneration’ of cooperative enterprises; and how legal structural elements of cooperatives relate to sustainable development.

Simel Esim, ILO Cooperatives Unit Manager participated as a speaker in the course on August 28, 2023. She reflected on the work of the ILO on cooperative legislation and policy as guided by the Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193). Reflecting around the recent developments on the social and solidarity economy (SSE), she talked about how cooperative and SSE values and principles are related. She highlighted pertinent points from the ILC resolution concerning decent work and the SSE, and the UN resolution on promoting the SSE for sustainable development to cooperative legislation. She also informed the participants about the upcoming SSE legislative guide that the ILO is developing.
In the question-and-answer session following the presentation, the participants asked about the specific developments around cooperatives in their countries and the engagement of the ILO with the cooperative movement in these contexts – Brazil, Croatia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.