Global trends of the last 10 years have escalated concerns over job creation and employment around the world. Trans-national corporations and large, established matured companies have transformed their workplaces, generally reducing middle management positions, levelling structures, expanding technical capacities, eliminating some jobs and creating others with different training requirements. There are increasing opportunities for new and agile firms but there are also reduced options for people in communities unable to participate fully or effectively in the modern economy. There are also widely different experiences among individuals and communities in their capacity to create jobs and achieve sustainability.

Where, amid these changes, do co-operatives fit in? How can they play significant roles in the evolving economies of the 21st century?

These were the questions that absorbed 39 experts from some 20 countries at a special workshop in Shanghai from May 15 to May 18. The workshop was organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA).

Ian MacPherson presented the keynote paper for the workshop on the theme Co-operatives and Employment: From Self-Help and Survival Initiatives to the Sustainable Livelihoods of Communities. It demonstrated how the co-operative approach to job creation could help the U.N. achieve many of its Millennium Goals for the development of sustainable and fair workplaces. It considered the historical role of co-operatives in creating jobs, reflected on the factors that inhibit the development of co-operatives, advocated the effective co-operative legislative framework and discussed how co-operatives could be useful forms for economic development (for example, in the form of worker co-operatives, as a way to meet social needs, and as a medium for amassing financial and human capital). It argued for increased and deepened involvement by universities in making the possibilities of this approach better known and more effectively applied.

During this “working conference” participants came up with a long list of recommendations on policy and action issues for their sponsoring organizations – DESA, ILO and the ICA – as well as for government officials in attendance and for organizations (including universities) seriously interested in training programs for people wishing to encourage existing and new co-operatives in the challenges of creating jobs in their communities.

Adam Harrison, Anthill Contributor