An online interactive report of the 12th Edition of the 12th Academy on Social and Solidarity Economy is launched

News | 21 January 2022
On the occasion of the 12th Edition of the Academy on Social and Solidarity Economy, hosted virtually by Portugal between 15 and 26 of November 2021, an interactive online report was developed by the ILO Cooperatives Unit, in collaboration with the ITC-ILO and CASES. The report, available on the ILO website, provides summaries, highlights and related materials from the Academy.

The homepage features a table of contents, where users can have an overview of the structure of the Academy and a list of all the plenary sessions, high level panels, electives and study visits that took place during the two weeks. By clicking on the title of the session, visitors are redirected to a dedicated page containing the summary of the session along with photos and supporting materials.
Presentations of the speakers (translated in the official languages of the Academy), hyperlinks to reports, news or organisational websites mentioned in the sessions as well as the links to the video recordings of the plenary sessions and the high level panels in multiple languages are also made available.

The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) encompasses institutional units with a social or public purpose[EMP5] [ES6] , engaged in economic activities based on voluntary cooperation, democratic and participatory governance, autonomy and independence, whose rules prohibit or limit the distribution of profit. Although the SSE is not new, its policy importance and visibility have grown significantly since the turn of the century. More recently it has been recognized for its role in creating and sustaining jobs and providing services for members, users and communities during the global COVID-19 pandemic. ­­SSE units may include cooperatives, associations, mutual societies, foundations, social enterprises, self-help groups and other units operating in accordance with SSE values and principles in the formal and the informal economies.

The ILO has been contributing to shaping the national and international debate on the SSE for the last decade through research, policy dialogue, awareness raising and partnerships. The ILO’s Cooperatives Unit has been organizing a series of academies on the SSE along with ITC-Turin bringing together ILO's tripartite constituents, policy makers involved in SSE, practitioners from partner development agencies and international organizations, SSE entrepreneurs, practitioners, academics and researchers. Since 2010 twelve editions of the academy took place around the world. The ILO has also spearheaded the promotion of the SSE within the UN system. In 2013, the ILO co-founded the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE), which comprises 18 UN agencies and the OECD as members and 14 civil society organizations and research institutes as observers. In 2022 a General Discussion on the Social and Solidarity Economy for a human-centred future of work will take place during the 110th Session of the International Labour Conference.

To explore the homepage of the online interactive report of the 12th edition of the SSE Academy, click here.

More information on previous Academies on SSE can be found in the SSE Collective Brain.

To find more information on ILO work on SSE visit the new portal on Social and Solidarity Economy.