ILO Highlights Social and Solidarity Economy as Key Driver of Crisis Response in Global Webinar

Decent work is recognized as a foundational element for peace, resilience, and social cohesion, particularly in fragile and crisis-affected contexts.

As part of the International Year of Cooperatives 2025 (IYC2025), the International Labour Organization (ILO) Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy Unit (COOP/SSE) hosted a global webinar on November 20, 2025, exploring the role of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) in building national resilience and supporting crisis-affected communities. The webinar showcased practical experiences from Jordan, the Philippines, Viet Nam, and Kenya, highlighting how SSE organizations can become central pillars of emergency response, recovery, and sustainable development.

ILO Mandate: Embedding SSE in Crisis Response

Decent work is recognized as a foundational element for peace, resilience, and social cohesion, particularly in fragile and crisis-affected contexts. The ILO’s mandate, established in the Treaty of Versailles and reinforced through instruments such as Recommendation No. 205, positions cooperatives and SSE entities as essential contributors to recovery and resilience. Additional frameworks, including Recommendation No. 204 on the transition from informal to formal work, and the 2022 Resolution on decent work and the SSE, provide normative support for integrating SSE into crisis response.

To translate these principles into effective action, governments and social partners must focus on three enabling conditions:

1. Legal and policy integration: SSE entities must be formally embedded within national disaster preparedness, response, and development strategies.

2. Strengthened financing and support structures: This includes cooperative development services, blended finance, liquidity facilities, and tailored financial products for crisis situations.

3. Institutional recognition: Cooperatives and SSE organizations should be seen as long-term partners in humanitarian response, not peripheral actors.

Country Experiences: Turning Policy into Practice

Several country examples demonstrate how SSE organizations effectively operate across the crisis cycle and offer scalable models:

• Jordan: The Jordan Cooperative Corporation (JCC) has supported livelihoods during the protracted refugee crisis, providing employment services, flexible work permits, and governance training for cooperatives. These efforts benefit both Jordanian workers and Syrian refugees, with a special focus on women in rural areas and refugee settlements.

• Philippines: The CLIMBS Life and General Insurance Cooperative provides climate insurance for farmers, enabling rapid payouts after natural disasters to restart production. Scaling such initiatives requires coordinated public-private financing and regulatory alignment with national climate-risk management systems.

• Kenya: The Co-operative Bank of Kenya has demonstrated how cooperative banking safeguards local economies during systemic shocks, maintaining credit flows, protecting jobs, and supporting emergency relief. Lessons include enhancing digital financial inclusion, improving digital literacy, and ensuring liquidity support for cooperative networks.

• Viet Nam: Cooperative-led cash-for-work programs by the Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance provided immediate income for households affected by typhoons while repairing essential infrastructure. Effective scaling depends on predictable funding, rapid needs assessments, and gender-responsive approaches, particularly for ethnic minority communities.

Forward-Looking Actions and Recommendations

The webinar underscored key priorities for leveraging SSE in crisis preparedness and response:

• Institutionalize SSE across the crisis cycle, from prevention and preparedness to response, recovery, and reconstruction.

• Scale innovations such as climate insurance in the Philippines and cash-for-work mechanisms in Viet Nam through supportive regulations, financing, and partnerships.

• Ensure inclusion and gender equality, targeting women, refugees, informal workers, and marginalized communities.

• Strengthen public-private partnerships and cooperative-government collaboration to sustain resilient models.

• Rebuild the social contract, using SSE-driven crisis responses to foster community trust and position cooperatives as democratic, locally rooted institutions capable of sustaining long-term resilience.

The ILO reaffirmed that when SSE entities are recognized, resourced, and included in planning, they become indispensable allies in building inclusive, resilient, and peaceful societies.