The International Co-operative Alliance, co-operative representatives, national and global statistical experts and UN agencies convened in Rome, Italy on 5-6 April to discuss the state of co-operative statistics and to develop a roadmap to improve the quality and consistency of data.
With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development now part of every country’s strategy, reliable and quality statistics will be invaluable evidence to the global community of how co-operatives contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Participants learned about the results and challenges of current initiatives to collect data on co-operatives, including case studies and mapping work carried out by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), who hosted the event at its headquarters.
They also reflected on the importance of progress on the issue of statistics before the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), which will take place in October 2018.
The workshop then moved from knowledge sharing to action, with stakeholders defining their roles to address issues of definition, data collection methodology and classification of co-operatives.
Participants concluded the workshop by agreeing upon a roadmap to take the work forward, which included establishing statistical and operational definitions to present to the ICLS and creating a working group on the issue coordinated by the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC), of which the Alliance is currently chair.
COPAC organised the workshop, as statistics counts among its key work areas. Following the workshop, the COPAC Board met to outline its strategic vision and work plan for the years ahead.
-ICA news
