A joint webinar organized by the ILO's Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy (COOP/SSE) Unit, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), and the International Cooperative Entrepreneurship Think Tank (ICETT) brought together representatives from large and multinational cooperatives to demonstrate how cooperative business models advance decent work across global supply chains.
The event, "Large and Multinational Cooperative Enterprises Advancing Decent Work Across Supply Chains," convened cooperative leaders, technical experts and practitioners to share how concrete operational tools, governance mechanisms and partnership models strengthen labour rights, improve supplier engagement and reinforce people-centred economic relations.
© ILO
The webinar opened with remarks from Simel Esim, Head of the ILO COOP/SSE Unit, who underscored the urgency of addressing decent-work deficits in global and domestic supply chains. She highlighted the contribution of cooperatives and other SSE entities, whose democratic governance and member-ownership models embed participation, accountability and long-term sustainability. Her remarks linked the discussion to ILO Recommendation No. 193 and the 2022 ILC Resolution on Decent Work and the SSE, both calling for stronger SSE contributions to fair and sustainable supply chains.
A video message from Jeroen Douglas, Director General of the ICA, highlighted cooperative efforts to address due diligence, sustainability and labour-rights challenges across supply chains. This was followed by an introduction from Thomas Blondeel, Chair of ICETT, presenting ICETT's work on cooperative entrepreneurship.
The webinar featured presentations by four cooperative leaders coming from different sectors, and membership types. Across their presentations, the speakers showed how cooperative identity and governance translate into practical tools that improve working conditions, strengthen due diligence and embed cooperative and SSE values across supply chains. They highlighted tools, programmes and dedicated structures that are embedded in the cooperative identity, governance and member participation-rather than isolated initiatives.
Tools and practices highlighted by presenters
Jungsik Jung from the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) in Republic of Korea, noted that this producer cooperative federation represents 1,100 local agricultural cooperatives and 2.1 million farmer-members, showcased programmes to support decent work upstream and downstream. He mentioned that the NACF programmes include: Supporting programmes for young farmers, foreign seasonal workers and women farmers; providing decent work-oriented financing services to farmer-members; and providing social protection and welfare services in rural areas and legal services for farmer-members.
Germán Lorenzo Ochoa, from the MONDRAGON corporation, a cooperative group of worker cooperatives based in the Basque Country of Spain, noted that it is the biggest worker cooperative group in the world. He underlined that it provides 70,500 jobs through 95 worker-owned cooperatives and their subsidiaries, detailed mechanisms for extending cooperative values and innovative entrepreneurial ecosystem into member-cooperatives, subsidiaries and suppliers, including: Group-level governance for social management and global supply-chain oversight; Extending the participation model to subsidiaries; Dedicated structures to supervise supply chains, such as ATEGI Corporate Purchasing Platform and "Social Responsibility Auditing" for suppliers.
Michael Mugo, Managing Director Designate for CIC Microinsurance of CIC Group noted that it is owned by 1,552 cooperatives. It is a leading cooperative insurance group in Kenya and the wider East African region, with a strong focus on microinsurance. Through products tailored to low-income households, smallholder farmers and informal workers, CIC expands access to social protection, supports income security and helps cushion members against shocks arising from illness, crop failure and other risks across supply chains, he mentioned.
Among the services provided by CIC Microinsurance, Mugo pointed out the following: Designing insurance products to support human rights and decent work; Dedicated structures, such as HR and ESG Committee for decent work and employee welfare, cross-functional teams to monitor compliance and promote responsible business conduct; and Providing training programmes for cooperative board members and the broader cooperative membership.
Debbie Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of Central Co-operative in the United Kingdom, presented practices supporting responsible supply chain management and decent work. She highlighted a number of examples, including: Power Purchase Agreements for fair and sustainable renewable-energy procurement; Digital engagement tools with Lobyco improving transparency and traceability; and the Malawi Partnership strengthening cooperative development and producer relations. She also pointed out a new Fund for International Co-operative Development launched during the International Year of Cooperatives that supports capacity-building and governance of cooperatives in need. She also mentioned that Central Co-operative is also taking steps toward a cooperative digital ecosystem to enhance information flows and C2C collaboration.
The webinar also included an intervention by Annie Van Klaveren from the ILO's Action Programme on Supply Chains, who noted how the experiences of large cooperatives align with the Programme's work on advancing decent work across priority supply chains. She highlighted the relevance of cooperative governance for strengthening due diligence, supplier engagement and worker protection, and for operationalizing upcoming ILO guidance and knowledge products. She also shared her renewed insight about cooperatives which are not always small and survival-mode initiatives but can be large enough to play leading role in influencing their supply chains.
The event concluded with closing remarks by Thomas Blondeel (ICETT) and Simel Esim (ILO COOP/SSE), who underscored the need to deepen collaboration between the ILO, large cooperatives and the cooperative movement. They encouraged participants to pursue joint work on documenting good practices, piloting cooperative approaches to due diligence across supply chains and supporting national cooperative ecosystems.
Overall, the webinar reaffirmed that large cooperatives-through their scale, democratic governance and international reach-can play a catalytic role in building supply chains that are more equitable, transparent and centred on the dignity of workers.
