The mission of RIPESS is to build and promote social solidarity economy, considering the social and ethical dimension in all economic activities. This consists of producing, exchanging, and consuming goods and services that correspond to the economic and social needs of the local and international community, and the establishment of harmonious relations between competitors in economic sphere.
This social, solidarity-based, economy values the priority of work over capital. It is aimed at satisfying the needs of individuals and communities rather than the quest for profit or financial gains. Solidarity-based economy units rest upon a model of democratic decisionmaking and a participatory and transparent management system, which aims at ensuring the collective ownership and responsibility for the outcomes of economic activities, as well as an ongoing motivation and contribution to their success.
The contribution of this economy is appraised by its incidence on local, national and international development, mainly, through the creation of permanent jobs, the development of new services, the enhancement of living standards, the contribution to gender equity, the protection of the environment and the creation of wealth under ethical conditions.
RIPESS pursues a way of economic organization that determines what is productive from the standpoint of the human person and the respect for ecological limits. This implies an economy that makes it possible that all the people have access to the material, intellectual and spiritual resources that guarantee their dignity; that promotes the respect for individual, social and economic rights; that stimulates democratic participation in economic decision making and citizen control of the operation of the markets and the intervention of the State; that push for the adoption of environmental and social responsibility criteria in production, distribution and consumption; and finally, that strives for social and gender equity in wealth distribution.
