RIPESS and the Catalan Cooperation Agency (ACCD) initiate a collaboration for the promotion of the ESS as a key strategy in sustainable development in a post-Covid19 context.

The project, funded by the ACCD, will last one year in a pilot phase, and will strengthen the actions of RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy) in the promotion of ESS, the advancement of intercontinental cooperation and advocacy on public policies at various levels.

In a context of unprecedented crisis around the world, with dramatic consequences for public health, the economy and society due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACCD and RIPESS reaffirm their commitment in the transformative economies as strategy for achieving sustainable development.

The SSE is playing a very important role in addressing and mitigating the short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. In the short term, SSE actors have helped the recovery by providing innovative solutions that have often strengthened public services and complemented government action. In the long run, SSE organizations, which carry implicit business behaviors aimed at reducing inequalities in society and quantifying social value, provide a transformative economic alternative, promoting inclusive and sustainable economic models, oriented towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The challenge, as specified by RIPESS in the statement issued on the pandemic and its consequences, is to build an alternative development model, driven by the needs of all the peoples and communities of the world, and by the protection of our planet.

This new collaboration, funded by the ACCD and implemented by the RIPESS, is born precisely with the aim of continuing with the promotion of the ESS as a sustainable development strategy. As an SSE intercontinental network, RIPESS wants to continue contributing to the achievement of the SDGs through the ESS, with its members at the local, national and continental levels, and in confluence with other global networks and institutions of United Nations. In this sense, this project aims to intensify the advocacy work of RIPESS and its members and will ensure the link between global and local actions.

On the one hand, the aim will be to better integrate the SSE into the programmes of international actors working on development strategies, such as the United Nations and other international organisations and movements, but also to increase the role of RIPESS in the spaces where international promotion activities take place. It will seek to promote dialogue between SSE networks and governments for the co-construction of policies and programmes favourable to SSE. In addition, the project will implement more regional and local actions in Latin America and Africa, such as the systematisation of local experiences, mappings, training courses, etc., which will seek to strengthen SSE networks and organisations’ advocacy capacities, especially of women’s and minority associations.