On the Challenges of Scaling Up Social and Solidarity Economy
Establishing Satellite Accounts for the Social Economy,
STATEC-ULESS Workshop, 14 October 2015, Luxembourg
Pascal van Griethuysen Coordinator, Sustainable Development Programme
Outline
UNRISD & SSE at the UN SSE scaling up, tensions & public
intervention Common challenges facing SSS scaling
up & measurement
UNRISD at a Glance
Exclusive mandate to research & policy analysis on social dev.
Funded in 1963, based in Geneva Independent research <-> external funding Collaboration with UN bodies, academics & civil society Limited staff, global network & research partnership 50 years of critical assessment & innovative thinking Convening power & policy impact : SDG -10 on inequality
SSE at the UN • UNRISD International Conference «Potential and
Limits of SSE» (May 2013) • UNRISD Publications: Briefs, Occasional paper
series, Think pieces & book (www.unrisd.org/sse) • UN Inter-agency Task Force on SSE (TFSSE),
founded by UNRISD, ILO, UNDP & UN-NGLS (September 2013) – Position paper – www.unsse.org (repository of UN publications
related to SSE)
UNRISD Volume - SSE Beyond the Fringe
«This book provides a progressive assessment of the history, theory, practice and potential of the social and solidarity economy over a wide geographical range» Keith Hart, London School of Economics Introduction by Peter Utting freely available at http://www.unrisd.org/utting-ssebook Paperback and ebook available at Zed Books and Amazon
Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE)
Workers, producers & communities that are organizing in forms of production, exchange, consumption and even finance with…
1. explicit social (and often environmental) objectives (e.g. basic needs provisioning; care services, employing the unemployed, food security)
2. values & practices of cooperation and solidarity 3. democratic self-management & decision-making
SSE - An expanding field
• 1 billion cooperative members • revival of cooperatives in Africa and Latin America • rise of social enterprise in Europe and Asia • 2.5 million women self-help groups in India • growth of fair trade markets: $ 6 billion • multiplication of solidarity finance schemes • big coop (Mondragon) & global network (Via Campesina)
SSE drivers • Recurring crises linked to finance, food, fuel and climate change • New realities and perception of vulnerability and inequality linked to
de-regulation, financialization… • New forms of identity politics and social movements struggling for
cultural rights, gender and env. justice • Discursive shift in framing (sustainable) development (equality, rights,
particpation, empowerement) • Social and environmental turn in public policy, SDGs • Constraints with globalized market forces and neoliberalism vs
engagement of non-state actors in service provisioning • Democratic liberalization and digital revolution: expansion of
possibilities for active citizenship and claims making
Context-embedded involved in the multiple dimensions of the real economy, combination & balance of goals and means
SSE – features
Managing Complexity
Needs Needs
Resources ResourcesX X X X X X X
X X X X X X XX X X X X X X X
MEANS
GOALS
From linear thinking to balancing goals & means
Context-embedded involved in the multiple dimensions of the real economy, combination & balance of goals and means
Value-driven proximity & reciprocity; social inclusion & solidarity; profits redistribution (socio-economic reproduction, collective learning & social innovation)
Transformative beyond dichotomies (state-market, profit-nonprofit); collaborative economy, participatory governance, collective ownership
SSE – features
Intrinsic limitations • weak initial conditions, assets, competencies • being locked in commodity sectors with low value-added
Disabling environment
• lack of legal recognition • diversity of actors & practices
SSE limits to self-expansion (1)
Difficult access to external finance • limited profitability • lack of formal property titles to engage as collateral
Limited economic security • limited scope of reciprocity • lack of institutionalized security
SSE limits to self-expansion (2)
Types of expansion
• Horizontal expansion multiplication of small scale activities at the grassroots level
• Vertical expansion significant growth in terms of scale or membership of individual organizations
• Transversal expansion across sector expansion. Engine for local development
Tensions associated with scaling up SSE
• when confronted with market forces – pressure for profitability & competitiveness
• when publicly supported – loss in autonomy; dependence upon public support;
cooptation & top down SSE policies
• common challenges – theories, policies and strategies that ignore structural
conditions that constrain SSE & enabling policies – tendencies towards institutional isomorphism – elite capture of SSE organizations & gains – subordination of women within leadership structures
UNRISD Enquiry
Can SSE be scaled up and sustained whilst retaining its core values and objectives?
Can this “integrative scaling up” be done through
public-SSE partnerships?
Public Policies for SSE Why are governments engaging?
SSE actors as partners
in realizing core development goals such as poverty reduction & employment generation
New policy objectives & priorities search for alternatives after the triple crisis; the 2030 Agenda. transitioning from informal economy, employment generation, social service provisioning, food security, women’s economic empowerment
• Policies credit, fiscal, labour market, social policy
• Laws SSE framework laws, cooperative law, constitutional clauses
• Programmes targeted SSE promotion (social enterprise, youth employment, women's participation) as means for local development
• Institutional reforms new national secretariats, Ministries, national development banks
• Supranational and sub-national policy arenas
Public Policies for SSE How are governments engaging?
How can governments enable SSE
• Recognize the potential of SSE • Tackle the disabling policy and legal environment • Safeguard the autonomy of SSE from the State • Favour co-construction of policies • Match SSE support with redistribution through the state via social,
fiscal, credit, investment, procurement, industrial, training policies • Adopt multi-scalar policy support: local, state, national and
international • Favour inter-governmental and multi-stakeholders dialogue • Generate and disseminate knowledge about SSE
Challenges facing public intervention
Institutional capacity neoliberal legacy, mismatch between objectives & implementation capacity; innovative sources of financing; aid for SSE
Policy coherence dealing with coordination problems, trade-offs, policy gaps & systemic contrdictions
Participation importance of social dialogue with SSE actors safeguarding autonomy co-construction and contestation
Continuity can SSE policies survive a change of government/party? can sources of financing be sustained?
Challenges facing public intervention
SSE scaling up and measurement Common challenges
Conceptual challenges Apprehending a huge diversity of evolving practices Social objective as common denominator (profit as means, not end) Balancing means and ends (complexity management)
Methodological challenges Multiple & heterogeneous impacts Non monetary, non quantifiable & intangible elements Systemic and emergent properties (social capital)
Economic challenges Resources mobilisation & economic continuity Multi-level methodology & adapted timing for monitoring (5 years)
UNRISD Volume - SSE Beyond the Fringe
«This book provides a progressive assessment of the history, theory, practice and potential of the social and solidarity economy over a wide geographical range» Keith Hart, London School of Economics Introduction by Peter Utting freely available at http://www.unrisd.org/utting-ssebook Paperback and ebook available at Zed Books and Amazon
