UNTFSSE welcomes African Union and Social Enterprise World Forum

© ILO

© ILO

GENEVA (ILO News) - The 51st meeting of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE), held on March 12, 2025, welcomed new members, highlighted regional progress, and strengthened collaboration on key priority areas. Discussions underscored the need for advancing collective efforts, particularly in light of ongoing global initiatives such as the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives (IYC 2025) and upcoming high-level engagements such as the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development and the Second World Social Summit 2025.

A key highlight of the meeting was the official welcome of the African Union as a new Member and the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) as a new Observer. Sabelo Mbokazi, Head of Labour, Employment and Migration Division, spoke on behalf of the African Union, highlighting their ten-year SSE Strategy and Implementation Plan (2023-2032), adopted by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government in February 2025. This strategy seeks to strengthen the role of the SSE in Africa by fostering a people-centred economic model aligned with the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. Gerry Higgins, Founder and Managing Director of SEWF, presented a brief overview of their work and noted areas of potential collaboration with the task force, including by focusing on rural social enterprises. The partnership and active engagement of both the SEWF and AU mark a significant step in institutionalizing the governance of the UNTFSSE and fostering broader engagement with regional and global actors working to promote the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE).

Following this, regional focal points to the task force discussed progress being made on the SSE across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Key points included:

• ESCAP’s Asia-Pacific Business Forum (APBF) 2025, upcoming on April 10-11 in Kuala Lumpur, will feature a dedicated SSE session titled “Empowering Communities Through Social Solidarity Economies” for the first time at an ESCAP event.
• ESCWA’s recent policy brief, Social and solidarity economy as an engine for socioeconomic inclusion, highlights the growing relevance of the SSE in the Arab region by fostering livelihoods opportunities and advancing equality and inclusion. The brief underlines the need for stronger legal frameworks, policy support, and capacity-building in order to address regulatory barriers and scale up impact of SSE entities in the region.
• The European Union’s conference, “Fostering Europe’s prosperity and industrial transformation: Cooperatives as drivers of change”, takes place on March 18, 2025. It showcases how cooperatives contribute to economic resilience and social cohesion within the European Union.

Participants then discussed collective efforts to promote education, capacity building and research on the SSE, such as through the UNTFSSE Knowledge Hub, the SSE Awards, and the SSE MOOC, for which 1,683 participants have registered to date.

The meeting proceeded with updates from the two active UNTFSSE technical working groups:

• The Technical Working Group on SSE Statistics (TWG-SSES) is holding its first official meeting, bringing together over 30 experts from across regions and sectors, including governments, national statistical offices, and practitioners and researchers from SSE organizations. Over the coming years, the TWGSSES will collaborate on developing concrete statistical tools and frameworks. These efforts will aim for drafting guidelines on SSE statistics for presentation, discussion and possible adoption at the 22nd International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2028.
• The Technical Working Group on Financial Access and Support (TWG-FAS) has an upcoming report ‘Strengthening access to finance for Social and Solidarity Economy entities to boost their contribution to sustainable development’ which is now being finalized. The report draws on international examples and good practices. A summary version of it will be used to raise visibility with multilateral development banks. RIPESS volunteered to coordinate UNTFSSE inputs for FfD4.

The next meeting of the UNTFSSE is tentatively planned for June 2025, where members will continue to share knowledge, strengthen partnerships, and make preparations for the upcoming UNTFSSE 5th Technical Symposium (to be hosted in Murcia, Spain in December). As the global landscape continues to evolve, presenting both significant challenges and opportunities for transformative progress, the UNTFSSE remains steadfast in its commitment to mutualism, cooperation and collective action.