Description of how the applicant meets the eligibility criteria (max. 200 words)
- The candidate is from an EU Member State or from the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the Republic of Korea, or India.
The International Cooperative Alliance is an international non-profit association (Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif) registered in Belgium.
- The candidate has the possibility to appoint a dedicated interlocutor to work with the OECD on the PLP.
The ICA has a dedicated staff (Strategy and Statistics coordinator) to work with the OECD as a PLP consortium coordinator for statistics on SSE. It also has staff in charge of specific tasks related to the topics for which it wants to join as a PLP consortium participant: legal framework and internationalization in terms of Coop to Coop business.
- The candidate has relevant experience/expertise on the SSE.
The ICA has a long history of serving cooperatives and rich experience & technical expertise on cooperatives and close & collaborative relations with SSE organisations. Its global outreach complements its specific expertise in cooperative statistics, legislation service, and policy to promote cooperative value chains.
- The candidate is strongly motivated to be a PLP consortium coordinator or PLP consortium participant and is committed to devote the needed human resources, skills and time for this goal.
The ICA is strongly motivated to be a PLP consortium coordinator and a PLP consortium participant with its human resources, outreach, skills and time for achieving the goals of consortiums to which it will commit itself.
- The candidate has pre-identified an area where further opportunities for peer learning to promote the development of conducive ecosystems for SSE, are needed.
The ICA proposes “the statistics on SSE” under the proposed thematic line of “Other relevant topics”.
- The candidate has pre-identified partners to form a consortium including practitioners, experts and academics, and policy makers at national regional and local level, working on/in the SSE field.
The ICA has pre-identified partners, key actors in the field of statistics on the SSE, to form a consortium and get their agreement to join.
Motivation of the application to be PLP consortium coordinator or PLP consortium participant (Max. 500 words)
Please describe your motivation to be a PLP consortium coordinator or PLP consortium participant.
ICA has striven to serve cooperatives and the broader global community in different contexts in responding to challenges of different times during its long history of 125 years. It acknowledges that the increasing interest in SSE shows the importance of the broader concept of SSE that includes cooperatives as a[SPK1] core element but also expresses the need to revisit ‘Cooperative Identity’ in a changing world.
This is reaffirmed in the ICA Strategy[SPK2] Plan “A People-Centered Path for a Second Cooperative Decade 2020-2030,” which expresses its interest in building strong partnerships with actors of the SSE movement and, commits to promote SSE. Thus, the ICA within & beyond its service to member organizations and cooperative movements around the globe has poised itself to deliver on its responsibility of promoting SSE ecosystems in line with its diverse [SPK3] experiences, expertise, and resources.
Among its various activities and services, the ICA for the last five years has been actively engaged in the development of statistics on cooperatives, together with the ILO, under the leadership of the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC). This work was concretized with the adoption of “Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperative” by the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2018. Continuing with its commitment to reliable and usable data, the ICA has now extended its expertise and energy to SSE statistics. It recently co-organized an expert workshop on “Opportunities and Challenges of Statistics on the Social and Solidarity Economic” in November 2019 with UNTFSSE, UNRISD, CIRIEC, and Social Economic Europe within the framework of the Korean Government-funded research project mandated to the UNTFSSE Knowledge Hub[SPK4]. Participants of this workshop agreed to strengthen and coordinate efforts towards developing statistics on SSE.
The present proposal of PLP consortium is in line with the result of the meeting as all main organizers of the workshop have expressed their keenness to join[SPK5] …?..
Candidate relevant experience/expertise on/in the SSE field (Max. 500 words)
Please describe your previous experience in the SSE field.
ICA is an international organization that unites, represents, and serves cooperatives worldwide. It is the global custodian of the Statement of Cooperative Identity which is found enshrined in many a legislation on and for cooperatives around the world. Founded in 1895, it is perhaps the oldest and largest non-governmental organization that can be measured by the number of people it serves in/directly, namely around 1.2 billion cooperative members on the planet or approximately 1/7th of humanity.
The ICA is the apex body representing cooperatives providing a global voice and forum for knowledge, expertise, and coordinated action for and about cooperatives. It continues to contribute in earnest, to the cause of cooperative development along with its four Regional Offices (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Americas, Europe), eight Sectoral Organisations (consumer, banking, insurance, agriculture, fishery, health, housing, industry & service) and Thematic committees & entities (research, gender equality, development, law, and youth) and most importantly, its General Assembly comprising currently of 310 national & supranational member organizations from 110 countries.
It also works closely with mutual societies through ICMIF, the ICA Sector that represents insurance cooperatives and mutual societies, as well as through its work on the World Cooperative Monitor that features, among others, data on large mutual societies.
Since the creation of the UNTFSSE, the ICA has been participating as an observer. It has recently started being engaged more actively in SSE, particularly concerning statistics, legislation, and policy issues.
Topic identified for the PLP (Max. 500 words):
Please identify the peer-learning topic that will be addressed by your PLP proposal and explain the rationale (e.g. specific need or strengths of a given country).
Note that topics can include:
– legal frameworks for the SSE;
– social impact measurement for the SSE;
– the internationalisation of SSE organisations;
– women and/in the SSE;
– the SSE in the face of the COVID-19 crisis and recovery; or
– other relevant topics identified by candidates.
ICA proposes “the statistics on SSE” under the proposed thematic line of “Other relevant topics”. As SSE organizations continue to develop around the world while the concept of SSE continues to gather recognition in more countries and regions, the demand for statistics on SSE has also seen a sharp growth. More efficient public policies and conducive ecosystem should be supported by strong evidence-base, shedding light on the actual size and scope, range of forms and business models, and economic and social contribution of these organisations, as stated in the Working Seminar co-organised by the European Commission and the OECD in 2017 themed on “Towards Satellite Accounts for Third Sector and Social Economy: challenges and opportunities”.
This need has been reiterated and emphasized on various occasions, such as in the French and Spanish legislation on the SSE, in EPSCO Council Recommendations in 2015 as well as in the Madrid declarations on “the Social Economy, a business model for the future of the European Union” signed by 11 EU Member States in 2017, among others.
It should be noted that significant efforts have been made to develop methodologies and to gather data at the national and international levels. The satellite account on the Non-profit Institutions becomes a substantial part of the international statistical standard recognized by the UN. The ILO has committed to the development of statistics on cooperatives, which resulted in the production of “Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives” in 2018, and it aims at adopting a manual on cooperative statistics in 2023. The statistics on SSE are also one of the central themes promoted by the UNTFSSE through its Knowledge Hub. Many national governments and public authorities already started producing the statistics on SSE in general or some main types of the SSE organizations, such as cooperatives, mutual societies, and associations: France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Costa Rica, Iran, Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Canada, among others. Various stakeholders in the scientific community and the SSE movement have also developed their methodologies and data collection. In collaboration with the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee, CIRIEC International produced “Manual for the satellite accounts of the social economy enterprises” (2006) and three editions of data collection on the SSE in Europe (2007, 2012, 2017).
ICA has annually published the World Cooperative Monitor, which is a collection & analysis of data on large cooperatives and mutual societies worldwide, done in collaboration with EURICSE, which is an essential scientific contributor to the development of statistics on cooperatives in Italy. CICOPA, ICA Sectoral Organization on Industrial & Service Cooperatives, produced two editions of the report on “Cooperatives and Employment” (2014 and 2017) illustrating pertinent statistical information.
Statistics on SSE lack an internationally standardized method, and the established standards are not yet sufficiently implemented at national levels. Therefore, the ICA, together with its partners who are key actors on the topic, will form a Peer-Learning Partnership consortium to strengthen the collective effort for:
1) accelerating the standardization of statistics on SSE and
2) facilitating the implementation of existing standards at the national, regional, and local levels.
Type of activities proposed (Max. 500 words)
Please describe the type of activity proposed for the PLP and note that it can take the form of one or several:
– thematic or group-assessment workshops,
– capacity building seminars,
– study visits,
– peer reviews,
– a mix of the above, or
– an innovative activity proposed by the candidate.
To develop manuals concerning the statistics on SSE, which aim to disseminate already established statistics and provide technical support for their implementation at the national, regional, and local levels, the consortium will conduct the following activities during the Peer-Learning Partnerships.
- Expert workshops for developing SSE statistics manuals on different modules: In view of producing the SSE statistics manuals as final deliverables, the consortium will organize expert workshops on different modules, such as cooperatives, mutuals, non-profit institutions, other modules (non-SSE social enterprises, informal initiatives, large enterprises, local level aggregation etc.) as well as methods for integrating different modules to produce statistics on SSE in general. The scientific committee of the consortium will prepare drafts of manuals including conceptual and operational definitions, variables and data collection methods, to present during the workshops. The workshops will also invite experts from countries with advanced experiences to feed the content of manuals.
- Training sessions for field actors: To test the accessibility of users to the manuals, the consortium will organize training sessions in which field actors concerned by the statistics and data collection will participate. National Statistics Offices, public authorities in charge of SSE, and local governments will be actively mobilized. The feedback from the training sessions will be reflected in the final production of manuals.
- Structuration of the Global SSE Observatory: The consortium will develop an online database platform managed in collaboration with a global expert network composed of SSE actors, researchers, governments, and international institutions. The expert network will also be grouped by regions (Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific) to facilitate peer reviews and exchanges at the regional level.
Partners identified to form a consortium (Max. 200 words)
Please describe which practitioners, experts and policy makers (at national, regional and/or local levels) you have identified for the PLP. Indicate if you are already in contact with these organizations or stakeholders. If you are not in contact yet, this is fine at this stage. Please simply specify which organizations or stakeholders you plan to involve/contact.
The ICA contacted the following organizations and got the agreement on their participation in the consortium.
UNRISD
Social Economy Europe
SSE International Forum
Global Social Economy Forum
Social Economy Europe
CIRIEC International
Euricse
Oibescoop
Sustainability and dissemination (Max. 200 words)
Please explain how you plan to disseminate PLP outcomes in the medium-long term.
After the PLP project, the consortium will continue to manage the Global SSE Observatory as a permanent platform for SSE statistics. The expert network also will continue to work as a knowledge resource pool. Together with partners, the ICA will commit itself to keep human resources at the disposition for providing technical services for SSE statistics, including the following activities.
- Pilot tests: The consortium will organize pilot projects with national or regional SSE stakeholders to test and improve the produced manuals. This stage might be coordinated with other initiatives led by national governments or international institutions.
- Dissemination and implementation: The consortium will continue organizing training sessions in collaboration with its partner international organizations and participating in regional research conferences on the SSE.
- Standardization: The consortium will aim at contributing to the official standardization of the result of some modules through the international institutions. For example, the results might be used to update the UN Handbook of National Accounting, UN Handbook of Satellite Account on Non-profit and Related Institutions, and Volunteer Work, as well as to produce the ILO Manual on cooperative statistics.
Additional information
The ICA is interested in joining other consortiums, particularly on legal frameworks and on other topics, including the idea of Coop to Coop business & trade. It has its own experiences, expertise as well as dedicated human resources on these issues.
[SPK1]A or the?
[SPK2]Strategic?
[SPK3]I added this word. Pl. check if it is needed.
[SPK4]These needs to be reworded
[SPK5]Join what? needs to be clear