2012 Annual Report

Past annual reports are available here.

< BACK

On 6-8 May, UNRISD held a major international conference on Potential and Limits of Social and Solidarity Economy, co-hosted with the ILO and in partnership with UN–NGLS, Hivos, the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation and the Ville de Genève. The conference was a great success in terms of both participation and outcomes.

The opening session included political and academic figures. Paul Singer (National Secretary of Solidarity Economy in Brazil), Guy Ryder (Director-General of the ILO) and Sarah Cook (Director of UNRISD) opened the Conference to a full house in the ILO’s Governing Body room. José-Luis Coraggio from the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento gave the keynote address. (See the agenda for more information on the sessions.)

Some 300 people attended the conference, representing a rich mixture of academics, UN policy makers, practitioners and civil society organizations. They made good use of the opportunity the conference presented to exchange views and knowledge taken from their different perspectives in the presentations, Poster Session for PhD students and Practitioners’ Forum.

Concrete results of these exchanges are already beginning to materialize.

• Participants in the UNRISD conference, where the need to establish intergovernmental forums on SSE was discussed, have been directly involved in building the connection between the ASEAN Leadership Forum and RIPESS. The intergovernmental ASEAN Leadership Forum, taking place in conjunction with the 5th International Meeting of RIPESS, the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy, in Manila, Philippines in October 2013. This will bring members of ASEAN governments into direct contact with SSE representatives and practitioners.
• An initiative is under way to establish an Interagency Task Force on SSE within the United Nations. The ILO is taking the lead in bringing relevant UN agencies together for regular exchanges on their programming and policy making in the field of SSE. It will focus UN efforts related to SSE and raise the profile of the social and solidarity economy in the UN system.

Social and solidarity economy has arguably been under the intergovernmental radar, but through initiatives like the UNRISD conference this situation is changing. The first steps have been taken—the challenge now is to use the momentum generated and carry the process forward.

View the Video Newsreel of the SSE conference.

Practitioners’ Forum Fourteen practitioners of social and solidarity economy presented their work in this forum and engaged in lively exchange with other participants. Practitioners included social enterprises and networks of social enterprises, alternative finance groups, an Internet platform, a think tank and a social entrepreneur. Minuto Cash involved visitors in their Minuto Game, a hands-on introduction to the use of an alternative currency. For information on the participating practitioners, see the conference booklet, pages 41-43.

PhD Poster Session PhD students working on issues relating to social and solidarity economy presented their work in the poster session and responded to the questions and comments of participants. Maria Granados from the University of Westminster in London recieved the most votes for “best poster” for hers, titled Developing Knowledge Management Capabilities in Social Enterprises. Thirteen students from as many universities participated. There were case studies from Bolivia, China, India, Italy, Tanzania and the Great Lakes Region of Africa. For information on the topics and poster presenters, see the conference booklet, pages 23-24.

Book Presentations Presenters included Hagen Henrÿ, who presented Guidelines for Cooperative Legislation; Claudia Sanchez Bajo, who presented Capital and the Death Trap; Bina Agarwal, who presented Gender and Green Governance; and José Luis Coraggio, who presented Dictionnaire de l’Autre Economie. For information on the book presentations, see the conference booklet, pages 15 and 33-34.

Special Session on Alternative Finance and Complementary Currencies This special session, organized by the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS), examined the potential and limits of a range of innovative financial and monetary tools—especially community banks and complementary currencies—to scale up SSE initiatives and build more resilient, socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable territorial development strategies. It provided an opportunity to better understand the diversity and complementarity of these emerging instruments, which are still little known and understood in mainstream academic and development policy circles. More

Trade Unions and Worker Cooperatives: Where Are We At? This seminar, held by the ILO on 9 May, brought together researchers and practitioners from around the world to talk about some of the issues and experiences that cooperatives are facing today. Participants heard presentations from Argentina, Brazil, Canada (Quebec), India, Italy, Africa and the Mercosur region, and discussed ways of strengthening relations between trade unions and cooperatives. The seminar was organized by the ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities and the ILO’s Cooperative Branch.

Resources

Conference Papers and Presentations The speeches, presentations and 42 draft papers from the conference, including those from the NGLS Special Session, are available online. The conference booklet, with all details and abstracts, is also available. Podcasts of all sessions are coming soon. Go to the list of conference papers and presentations.

Think Pieces on Social and Solidarity Economy This series of think pieces by scholars and practitioners working on a broad range of issues within the field of SSE is one of several activities in the UNRISD inquiry on “Potential and Limits of Social and Solidarity Economy”. These contributions present in a succinct manner a variety of perspectives, including the nature and impacts of different organizational forms; and the prospects for realizing the potential of SSE in different institutional and political contexts. Go to the list of think pieces.

What Is Social and Solidarity Economy and Why Does It Matter?
Governments and international organizations need to be paying far more attention to SSE, and question how its developmental and emancipatory potential can be realized. They should also be asking themselves whether current priorities or biases in development policies are not missing, or indeed undermining, what could be a major new game in town.

A guest contribution by Peter Utting, Deputy Director, to the “From Poverty To Power” blog by Duncan Green, strategic advisor for Oxfam. It was also published on the World Bank’s blog, “People, Spaces, Deliberation“.

All publications downloadable from the UNRISD website are free!

Contact

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
E-mail:

For feedback on the e-bulletin:

< BACK

What are the benefits of community economic development and how can it become more mainstream?

Localise West Midlands (UK) has been researching how localised and community economic development can be integrated into the mainstream to help create more successful, socially just and diverse places.

Its first stage was a review of the literature evidence for the benefits of localised economies in comparison to more centralised economic approaches. There’s nothing new about localised economic approaches or writing around their social benefits, so the authors assumed this stage would be a quick overview of relevant existing analysis as context for the primary work on ‘mainstreaming’. In fact, they found little direct assessment of different economic approaches, with this review being one of the first to collate evidence around the socio-economic benefits of economic localisation strategies.

Whilst there were numerous gaps in the research, the review identified significant evidence that local economies with higher levels of small businesses and local ownership perform better in terms of economic success, job creation (especially in disadvantaged and peripheral areas), local multiplier effect, social inclusion, income redistribution, health, wellbeing, civic engagement, local distinctiveness and cultural diversity than those more dependent on centralised economic actors. This in itself was one of the strongest outcomes of the research, providing an evidence base for the rebalancing towards indigenous activity that many have called for, and a basis for further research exploration.

These findings signal the need to revalue how we balance and integrate more community-based approaches to economic development with the more dominant experience of attracting inward investment in economic development practice and policymaking. Through the research we have identified actions and approaches locally and nationally that could progress this balance.

A Mainstreaming-CED approach involves developing a mindset that thinks of the local economy as a complex ecosystem in that it takes a ‘supply and demand chain’ approach rather than focusing on individual businesses or sectors. In an ecosystem, removal of a link in the food chain upsets the whole system; likewise regeneration and economic development decisions need to be assessed for their impacts on existing supply networks.

The CED approach mindset also seeks to build a relationship-based economy, focuses economic development on partnerships and networking, understands the strategic importance of the multiplicity of the small scale, seeks to maximise local power rather than handing it to absentee landlords with little interest in or understanding of the local area, and takes a long-term perspective, with clear aims to support greater social and economic inclusion.

Read the Project summary >>

Download Project reports >>

< BACK

The Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry,  announced in April that the Government of Canada has completed the transfer of responsibility for co-operatives to Industry Canada from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, which was a key recommendation in the report of the Special Committee on Co-operatives published last year.

“Co-operatives play an important economic role in generating jobs and growth in Canada,” said Minister Paradis. “Responsibility for this sector is well aligned with Industry Canada’s mandate to help make Canada more productive and competitive and improve Canada’s economic and social well-being.”

Work on co-operatives will continue at Industry Canada with a number of initiatives, including:

• assessing Industry Canada programs and services that are relevant to and accessible by co-operatives;
• advancing a cross-government network with other federal departments that have responsibility for co-operatives;
• developing an engagement strategy with provincial counterparts to build working relationships and increase understanding of the co-operative business model; and
• releasing Co-operatives in Canada in 2009, a report on the activities of co-operatives across the country.

Canada has over 9,000 co-operatives and credit unions with more than 18 million members. Canada’s co-operatives employ approximately 156,000 people and own total assets of approximately $266 billion. Industry Canada is responsible for developing federal legislation for the incorporation of federal bodies other than financial institutions. The Department was already responsible for the Canada Cooperatives Act. Corporations Canada, which is part of Industry Canada, administers the Act and the incorporation of federal co-operatives.

“This change will ensure that there is a single focal point in government to facilitate development, innovation and growth in Canada’s co-operative sector,” added Minister Paradis. “Our Government welcomes the opportunity to engage with co-operatives and to further review our business programming to support co-operatives.”

Read more >>

< BACK