Article by MedRISSE
“The future of the social & solidarity economy” was the main topic of MedRiSSE‘s launching conference, held on 23 of June 2022 in Tunisia, attended by more than 200 people. International and local actors in the Social & Solidarity Economy (SSE) brought together to reflect on the collective impact of the sector and create a vision for the future.
Organized by the Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneurship in partnership with Asamblea de Cooperación Por la Paz (ACPP), the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and Oxfam, the conference had a central theme, “How do we envision the future of the social and solidarity economy?”, and it was an intense exchange of experiences between the participants and partners of the project.
The conference programme conducted by Ms. Leila Ben Gacem, included a plenary session related to “social impact beyond trends”; a panel discussion entitled “Our collective journey” about striving for a more collaborative SSE ecosystem: in-depth knowledge, key findings, and recommendations; a question and answer session; the workshop “Our collective learnings” on the co-production of public policies, access to funding and the development of SSE; and the dissemination of capitalized projects by MedRiSSE, like MedUP project which is already concluding.
The workshop “A common vision of the future of SSE” was also among the main goals of the conference.This closing session opened horizons for the future of the social & solidarity economy sector, based on the contributions of the people who participated.
Furthermore, the Mediterranean Co-production Laboratory and the MedRiSSE wiki were presented as tools that will help the participatory development of SSE public policies. The launching conference ended with speeches by Mr. Lotfi Ben Aissa, key proponent of the SSE law in Tunisia & member of the City Council of Tunis; and Gaia Cersosimo, ACPP focal point in Tunisia.
MedRiSSE is a two-year project that aims to foster the co-production of social policies to fight poverty, inequality, social exclusion and environmental unsustainability in the Mediterranean through the development of SSE innovations and a joint framework approach for the co-production of social policies, the guide reads.The project is being implemented in Spain, Palestine, Italy, Jordan and Tunisia.
It is worth mentioning that the project will benefit 1.500 SSE practitioners, 250 researchers, 250 entrepreneurs and public sector decision-makers, mainly in the field of social policies.
More information about the Conference, please visit this link
Interview to Asma Mansour, President of the Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneuship, here
