The Multi-Country Workshop on Social Economy and Social Enterprise was organised in Brussels on 14-15 November by the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX) of the European Commission. The workshop was part of the cooperation on Employment and Labour, developed within the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). The workshop aimed at better informing the authorities of the region on the opportunities to be seized, and the good practices available in the design of policies and initiatives to promote the social economy and social enterprises.

Open to the Southern Neighbourhood partners eligible to the TAIEX instrument, i.e. Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Montenegro, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Tunisia and Turkey, the workshop brought together 50 participants, mainly from ministries and public agencies responsible for employment and labour, economy, trade, industry and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The ILO representative was among the speakers along with officials from the European Commission and experts from academic institutions, civil society networks and international organisations engaged in the promotion of social economy.

The ILO representative presented good practices in job creation through the social and solidarity economy, in a panel intituled ‘Social Economy at Work’, alongside officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs of Tunisia, and the Metropolitan City of Bologna. The ILO presentation focused on the various past and current development cooperation projects of the ILO toward creating decent work in the Southern Neighbourhood partners, namely Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territory and Turkey.

The agenda and the presentations are available here.