Summary
What would be the contribution of cooperatives to work and employment? What is the achievement of cooperatives in developing decent work so far and what will be the challenges in the changing world of work? How can cooperatives provide the younger generation with workplaces and tools for realizing their dreams and ambitions with decent work and better economic conditions?
The main target of this present study is cooperatives in industrial and service sectors of which the principal objective is to serve members’ employment or business activities, providing a common analytical tool for understanding diversity of the types of cooperatives in the Asia Pacific region.
The present study is the result of a one-year joint research project of the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) and CICOPA, sectoral organisation of the ICA, which represents cooperatives in industrial and service sectors at the global level. The research project was conducted in close collaboration with local partners from different backgrounds (ICA member organisations, research institutes, individual cooperatives and individual researchers). The study was also fed by the previous collaboration between ICA-AP and CICOPA around cooperatives in industrial and service sectors which allowed to conduct field research in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.