• CEPES and leaders of the six international consortia selected by the OECD for its global initiative “Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems” - financed by the European Union - have been presented during the first international event 'Social and Solidarity Economy: From the Margins to the Mainstream', organised by the OECD and attended by more than 1500 people from five continents.
• Hundreds of high represetrasntives, professionals and experts in the social economy met virtually from 13 to 16 September to promote this enterprise model at international level.
• The main conclusions of the project led by CEPES “Legal Ecosystems for Social Economy- Peer Learning Partnership” (PL4SE – PLP) involving 25 organisations and governments from 3 continents were presented as a unique and innovative opportunity to address the new challenges and opportunities for the social economy.
Madrid, September 20, 2021.- The Second Vice-President of the Spanish Government and Minister of Labour and the Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, took the floor at the closing session of the OECD High-level conference hold from 13 to 16 September last Friday. This event brought together hundreds of high Government representatives, professionals and experts in the social economy from all over the world with the aim of setting up measures and launching initiatives to promote this enterprise model at international level.
Spain occupied a very significant role in the agenda of this event, as one of the countries with one of the most developed ecosystems in favour of the Social Economy in the world.
In reponse to the questions of the OECD director responsible for entrepreneurship and SMEs, Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, regarding the most important and lastest developments, Díaz announced that "two new important milestones for the social economy in Spain are coming: on the one hand, the new Spanish Social Economy Strategy 2021-2027, which will be aligned with the NEXT GENERATION plans, and, on the other hand, the approval of the European Action Plan for the Social Economy", which will have an direct positive impact on all the Member States and their territories to promote these enterprises.
Likewise, he Second Vice-President and Minister also highlighted the key role that CEPES, as the sector's representative organisation, has played in building in Spain a favourable ecosystem for the promotion of the social economy. She calls to strengthing this partnership and mutual support in the common effort to promote this enterprise model on an international level. In this way, Díaz underlined the work that the Spanish government is doing to increase the visibility of the social economy.
Yolanda Díaz made these declarations in the session 'Charting the way forward: mainstreaming the social and solidarity economy', in which high institutional representatives from different countries discussed about how to empower the social economy and how to strengthen its role as a key driver for a systemic change and for innovation, and how to expand and multiply its social impact to the benefit of the whole society.
MEASURING THE IMPACT OF THE SOCIAL ECONOMY
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Social Economy of the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, Juan Manuel Sánchez-Teran highlighted in the round table “Social impact measurement: friend or foe?” the importance of the social economy in Spain and the role of CEPES, its representative organisatio, as well as pointing out the importance of measuring the impact of the principles and values of social economy "to show its value to the whole society that does not know what this model consists of".
He explained that "monetising social impact is a good opportunity to do so" and emphasised the need to measure the positive impact of the social economy on people and territories, especially on the employability of women and young people, highlighting the results of the study "Analysis of the socio-economic impact of the values and principles of the social economy in Spain" conducted by CEPES as a reference in measuring the impact of the social economy.
PROJECT LED BY CEPES
CEPES participated last Wednesday in the round table "Partnering for change" where the six consortia selected by the OECD for its Global Action 'Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems', funded by the European Union, presented the work carried out so far and their main conclusions, challenges and the key factors to support and boost the development the social economy at international level.
CEPES, which has led one of the six projects, called “Legal Ecosystems for Social Economy- Peer Learning Partnership” (PL4SE – PLP), pointed out - along with other conclusions - that "there is an increasing trend to adopt overall legal frameworks favourable to the whole Social Economy and to regulate its role in the market through tax treatment or support programmes that are adapted to this enteprise model".
CEPES added that, in any case, it is necessary to get the political commitment to place the social economy at the heart of social, economic and environmental policies in which these enterprises and organisations. this is essential to develop these legal ecosystems. CEPES' representative mentioned the case of Spain, where social economy is involved in the law-making process.
Finally, CEPES’ representative described the project being led by CEPES as " an unique and initiative initiative to address new challenges in the social economy" and recalled that this first experience at international level will mark future lines of work in promoting legal frameworks favourable to the Social Economy at a global level.
All the information regarding the Project led by CEPES is available on: LEGAL ECOSYSTEMS FOR SOCIAL ECONOMY- OECD PROJECT (cepes.es)
All the information on the six consortia promoted by the OECD is available on the following link: Global Action: Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems - OECD
