Panel Discussion: New Scenarios for Cooperativism and Social Economy

Dialogue with the National Institute of Cooperativism (INACOOP) to discuss challenges, opportunities, and new scenarios for Cooperativism and Social Economy.

On Monday, November 14, at the auditorium of the Executive Tower, the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Uruguay, Pablo Ruiz; the Executive Director of the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation, Mariano Berro; the President of the Uruguayan Confederation of Cooperative Entities, Alicia Maneiro; the President of the National Institute of Cooperativism, Martín Fernández, and the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Pablo Mieres, expressed their views.

The organizations that make up the social and solidarity economy (SSE) represent important economic and social actors in the region and the world due to their contribution in terms of employment, production, income, local development, democracy, equality, and sustainability. Cooperatives and, in general, organizations that make up the SSE, represent viable alternatives to increase productivity, income, and employment levels, considering also access to social security enabled by associated work in various types of business formats. In addition to the above, these economic forms promote different approaches to sustainable, productive, and economic development. Thus, these organizations contribute, for example, to strengthening democracy, both political and economic, by promoting the active participation of workers in the governance of their own companies and distributing the fruits of labor more equitably.

In order to define a Future Agenda that strengthens the role of SSE in a just transition in economic, environmental, and social matters, the following 6 axes of work are proposed: I. Extend and reinforce the model of entrepreneurship in the social economy to maintain and generate stable and quality employment: more and better companies and jobs II. Promote training in social economy III. Make the model more attractive and give it greater visibility by promoting its virtues IV. Improve the governance of public policies and promote public-private cooperation V. Promote the participation of workers in companies VI. Ensure and extend access to financing for companies/entities in the social economy and provide cohesion and attractiveness to the model through inter-cooperation

You can access the complete document of the event's report below in the attached documents.