Edited by Torino Social Impact

Policy & Practice

The international debate and best practices from around the world

10 December 2020

Global Action to promote Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems

torino social impact

In 2020, the OECD launched the Global Action “Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems”. It will cover more than 30 countries over a period of three years.

As part of the OECD and EU strategic objectives to promote inclusive, smart, resilient and sustainable growth, in 2020, the OECD launched the Global Action “Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems”, funded by the European Union’s Foreign Partnership Instrument. It will cover more than 30 countries over a period of three years and aims to support the SSE, including social enterprise development and internationalisation, raise awareness and capacity to build conducive national and local ecosystems for SSE development, promote knowledge and other exchanges at the international level.

Growing inequalities, persistent unemployment and environmental imperatives have come to the fore as priority policy issues, even more so with the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) can contribute to building more inclusive and sustainable economies and societies. The SSE has indeed proved to be a longstanding agent of inclusive growth. The main characteristic of the SSE is doing business differently, often through social innovation. Traditional SSE organisations and more recent forms, such as social enterprises, all share a common approach that puts people at the core of their mission and business model, while also paying attention to social and, often, environmental issues. Despite the increasingly recognised importance of the SSE, many countries still struggle to develop conducive ecosystems and to access good practices at the international level. This project will thus focus on two critical policy levers that can help unlock the potential of the SSE, namely legal frameworks, and social impact measurement.

This work targets all EU countries and non-EU countries such as Brazil, Mexico, India, the Republic of Korea, the United States of America and Canada.

The project will develop

● An international Guide on Legal Frameworks for the SSE
● An international Guide on Social Impact Measurement for the SSE
● Peer-learning partnerships (PLPs) to create knowledge and experience sharing opportunities between different countries and stakeholders on different topics critical to SSE development
● Country fact sheets on the SSE
● Thematic papers (e.g. conceptual framework for the SSE; the internationalisation of the SSE; women and the SSE; the SSE in the (post) COVID-19 recovery)

The call for tender for the Peer-learning partnerships (PLPs) has closed recently and Torino Social Impact applied with a project led by Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini.