At the end of an unprecedented peer learning experience, REVES and CEPES are pleased to present the report “Legal Ecosystems for the Social Economy”, carried out in the framework of the OECD Global Action for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy and funded by the European Union. The project ran from April to October 2021 and involved representatives of national and regional authorities as well as national and continental social economy organisations from three continents.
The broad partnership that made this collective knowledge possible is based on an international consortium of 26 organisations, made up, on the one hand, of state and ministerial public departments responsible for the Social Economy in seven countries: Brazil, Canada, Korea, India, Italy, Mexico and Spain; various local and regional governments, such as those of Catalonia, the Brussels Capital Region, the State of Puebla in Mexico or the French network of local bodies working in favour of the Social Economy. And organisations such as the ILO and the Global Social Economy Forum (South Korea).
In addition to CEPES and REVES, other Social Economy organisations took part in the meeting included the Confederation of Worker Cooperatives of the United States, Social Economy Europe, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the International Alliance of Mutual Societies (AIM), Cooperatives Europe, the European Network for Social Integration Enterprises (ENSIE), a network promoting the Social Economy at local level in Canada, CIRIEC, DIESIS and support centre for co-operative entrepreneurs in the United States.
The conclusions presented underline the need to provide regulatory frameworks with a legal definition of the social economy based on the common principles and values that govern this business model, notably solidarity, the primacy of people over capital, participation and governance, as also recognised by the OECD in its more than 20 years of promoting the Social Economy globally.
This legal definition should make it possible to generate mechanisms for monitoring, institutional recognition, visibility and promotion of the social economy as a key driver of recovery.
