A joint policy brief from organisations led by the International Labour Organization (ILO) highlights the role of co-ops, mutuals and other social and solidarity (SSE) entities in driving the “human rights economy”.
Released to mark the World Day of Social Justice on 20 February, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the ILO-chaired United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE), and the ILO-led Global Coalition for Social Justice, the brief argues that the SSE promotes decent work, equitable resource distribution, care systems, gender equity, and climate resilience, all while prioritising people and social purpose over profit.
This is a pressing concern, the briefing warns. “Although many economies have grown in recent decades,” it argues, “poverty reduction has slowed, inequalities have widened and environmental pressures have intensified.
“These patterns show that strategies centred primarily on stimulating economic growth, typically through investment attraction, market liberalisation and productivity increase, have not consistently translated into improvements in people’s wellbeing or in the realisation of human rights.”
As a solution, it identifies practical policy levers for governments, development partners and international partners to support the SSE as a “key policy instrument for meaningful economic transformation”.
Related: ILO launches technical working groups on co-ops and SSE stats
“Backing the social and solidarity economy is one of the most impactful ways in which governments can address poverty without relying on growth-dependent strategies that deepen inequality and environmental harm,” said Olivier De Schutter, special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
The policy brief contributes directly to the Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth — a set of post-growth policy proposals for poverty eradication.
Developed after consultations with nearly 200 institutions, civil-society groups and experts, the roadmap will outline policy measures across five areas – economic systems transformation; labour policies and the care economy; access to social protection and essential services; climate, environment and resources; and trade, finance, debt and global solidarity – “underpinned by a transversal focus on governance and participatory democracy”.
The briefing says SSE entities such as co-ops “act as agents of change by embedding participation, equality and solidarity in their organisational practices. Their human rights and well being-based approaches constitute the processes of transformation that foster inclusive production, redistribution and sustainable livelihoods.
“Together, these dynamics contribute to the outcome of a human rights economy that prioritises human dignity, environmental sustainability and wellbeing over profit.”
Key to this, says the briefing, are the placing of participatory governance and decision-making, and the primacy of social purpose over capital, advancing the wellbeing of their members and the broader public “while helping curb dynamics that reinforce high inequality, such as wealth concentration and financial speculation”.
The big question is how to realise this potential, and the briefing calls for “coordinated policy action across institutions and time horizons”.
It sets out a list of short, mid and long-term policy levers for nationalnand subnational governments, development partners and multilateral institutions can mobilize a coherent set of policy
They include ensuring the legal recognition and visibility of SSE entities, establishing supportive frameworks for SSE participation in public procurement and recovery programmes, and introducing targeted tax and fiscal measures that reflect the nature of the sector.
It also recommends promoting SSE entities in social care, extending social protection coverage to workers in the SSE, and supporting a transformative agenda for gender equity through the SSE.
In the long term, the briefing suggests the alignment of trade, industrial and employment policies with SSE principles, integrating the SSE into national budgeting and development-financing frameworks, and promoting institutionalised, cross-ministerial and multi- stakeholder platforms.
The brief was presented and launched by the UN special rapporteur and Simel Esim, head of the ILO’s Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy Unit and chair of the UNTFSSE, at a public conference on the SSE in Turin, Italy.
The brief, with the full set of policy recommendations, is available in English and Italian.
