A two-day international workshop held in Bordeaux, France, from October 29-30 2025, brought together 35 experts from five regions to advance global statistics on cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy (SSE). Convened as a joint "deep dive" meeting of the COPAC Technical Working Group on Measuring the Economic Contribution of Cooperatives (TWG-MECC) and the UNTFSSE Technical Working Group on Social and Solidarity Economy Statistics (TWG-SSES), the workshop gathered representatives from international governmental organizations, national statistical offices, governmental authorities, workers' organizations, research centres and networks associated with cooperative and SSE movements. "Having experts from different regions and institutional backgrounds helps ensure that the statistical frameworks we develop are truly inclusive and applicable across different regional and country contexts," said Hyungsik Eum, Technical Officer at the International Labour Organization (ILO).
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Strengthening common ground and defining next steps
The workshop aimed to deepen the shared understanding among experts, identify key issues, and plan the next steps in building international statistical standards for cooperatives and the wider SSE. "This work is essential for improving how we understand, recognize and promote the contributions of cooperatives and other SSE entities in the global economy. It's about making them visible, measurable and valued," said Simel Esim, Head of ILO Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy Unit and Chair of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE). The discussions clarified how to define and measure these entities across countries, emphasizing both global comparability and local relevance.
Tackling definitions and indicators for measuring economic contributions
The UNTFSSE TWG-SSES addressed the challenge of translated the SSE values and principles, set out in the universal definition, into statistically measurable criteria to determine which entities qualify as SSE, and to propose a typology that accommodates legal and cultural differences across countries. Participants emphasized the importance of building a flexible yet consistent statistical framework that can accommodate national specificities while enabling international comparability.
The COPAC TWG-MECC explored potential indicators to better reflect the economic contributions of cooperatives - such as transactions with members, allocation of surplus, and unpaid or volunteer labour. A broad consensus was reached on the importance of identifying cooperatives within existing statistical systems, while recognizing the need to adjust these systems so they better reflect the specificities of cooperatives.
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Learning from country experiences
Participants reviewed case studies from Portugal and Poland, where national statistical systems have begun to incorporate SSE satellite accounts. These examples demonstrated how integrating SSE into official statistics can improve recognition of its contributions. The presentations prompted a discussion on how comparable approaches could be implemented elsewhere, depending on national priorities and data capacities.
Additional presentations on statistical developments in Latin America on cooperatives and the SSE and on the process involved in statistical standard setting in International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) informed further discussion.
Looking ahead: From technical work to global standards
Outcomes from the Bordeaux deep-dive workshop will serve as a foundation in the development of international guidelines and tools on economic contribution of cooperatives and on statistics concerning the SSE. The insights and agreements reached will inform the development of a new manual on cooperative statistics and statistical guidelines on the SSE, both of which are being prepared for submission and discussion at the 22nd ICLS in 2028.
The workshop also helped set out immediate next steps for the technical working groups, ensuring that the momentum continues. Their work feeds into a longer-term process that aims to transform how cooperatives and the wider SSE are represented in global statistics - moving steadily from concept to measurable reality through continued collaboration among diverse stakeholders.
