The UN Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE) held its 35th regular meeting

The UNTFSSE meeting was virtually held on 18 May 2021 and brought together around 40 participants including representatives from six member (ILO, UNRISD, UNDESA, UNCTAD, UNDP-ART, UNHRC), twelve observer organizations (CIRIEC, EURICSE, Catalyst2030, EMES, GSEF, Euclid Network, Social Economy Europe, SSE International Forum, RIPESS, CSEND, EESC and ICA) and three resource persons.

News | 19 May 2021
The meeting started with a discussion around priority objectives of the UNTFSSE work plan, including the process leading to a UN resolution on SSE and two joint UNTFSSE project proposals. Updates on the ongoing and future activities of the Knowledge Hub were shared. A proposal to organize a UNTFSSE conference in 2022 was presented. The participation of the UNTFSSE and members in the Pact for Impact initiative was also tabled.

Updates on two priorities of the UNTFSSE were discussed. The mapping initiative on exploring the existing training/sensitization curricula on SSE was presented. It was mentioned that, based on the finding it will be possible to develop synergies with key websites gathering relevant information and to inform a possible UNTFSSE’s educational product, that could be developed in collaboration with ITC-ILO. UNDP-ART presented the work of organization on Local Economic Development (LED) and SSE and highlighted the areas of synergies created within the UNTFSSE on LED.

The meeting continued with the presentation of the current communication strategy of the task force, including the new tools on sharing relevant member information especially pertaining to events, projects and publications.

ILO briefed the members about the decision of the 341st Governing Body (GB) of the International Labour Office (ILO) to place on the agenda of the 110th Session (2022) of the International Labour Conference (ILC) an item related to “Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) for a human-centred future of work” for general discussion.

As part of updates from members, UNHRC shared its approach and work related to SSE, and provided other members with information on the global collaborative initiative project MADE51. Common synergies for future events were also discussed, in particular within the framework of the Fifth World LED Forum and the European Social Economy Summit and GSEF2021.