Social and Solidarity Economy and the Challenge of Sustainable Development: Executive Summary of a TFSSE Position Paper

The international development community recognizes the need to rethink development. Business-as-usual has not prevented financial and food crises, climate change, persistent poverty and rising inequality.

The UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (TFSSE) was established to raise the visibility of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) in international knowledge and policy circles. The members and observers of the TFSSE believe that SSE holds considerable promise for addressing the economic, social and environmental integrated approaches of sustainable development.

TFSSE brings together UN agencies and other intergovernmental organizations, as well as umbrella associations of SSE networks as observers. Our activities include organizing events at UN and other international conferences, dialoguing with policy makers, preparing and disseminating publications, and engaging in collaborative projects.

Members and observers of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy have prepared a position paper titled Social and Solidarity Economy and the Challenge of Sustainable Development. The paper responds to the concern that the process of crafting a post-2015 development agenda and a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has paid insufficient attention to the role of SSE. The TFSSE position paper illustrates SSE’s potential as an integrative approach to achieve sustainable development. It examines the role of SSE in eight selected issue areas which, the Task Force believes, are central to the challenge of socially sustainable development in the early 21st century.