The GSEF was in Cali, Colombia in October to take part in the 16th United Nations Conference on Biodiversity, COP16!

Céline Papin, deputy mayor of Bordeaux, in charge of territorial, European and international cooperation, took part in a high-profile panel on “Women and biodiversity: cultivating better trade opportunities”, during which she discussed : 

• the advances made by the city of Bordeaux's policy in favor of the Social and Solidarity Economy: initiatives that promote employment and the well-being of women in particular.
• Bordeaux's strong commitment, through its presidency of the GSEF and its decentralized cooperations (Burkina Faso, Peru...) to supporting local governments and SSE networks in the transition to fair economic models, serving the necessary social and environmental transformations.

As part of COP16, ECOOVIDA2024, the international meeting of “economies for life”, took place from October 22 to 26, 2024.

CThe event was co-organized by Unidad Solidaria, the Colombian state administrative unit attached to the Ministry of Labor and dedicated to solidarity organizations, in cooperation with several international platforms and networks of social, solidarity, popular, community and transformative economies... Alongside the GSEF, these international players included FSMET (World Social Forum of Transformative Economies), which held its own forum on October 20 and 21, as well as RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy), COLACOT (Latin American Confederation of Workers' Cooperatives and Mutual Societies), MAELA (Latin American and Caribbean Agroecological Movement), RULESCOOP (Euro-Latin American University Network for Cooperative and Social Economy Studies), and ESS Forum International. Also present were more institutional players, such as the UNESCO Chair on the Social and Solidarity Economy and the UNTFSSE (United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on the Social andSolidarity Economy). And last but not least, Via Campesina came in large numbers from the four corners of the globe.

In addition to the International Committee, which met several times virtually in preparation for the meetings, regional committees were set up in Colombia's 32 departments to voice the concerns and expectations of national players. Delegations from each department travelled to take part in the meetings.

The event, which attracted some 3,000 people over 5 days, was divided into several phases: a cultural opening at Cali's Municipal Theatre; solidarity tourism tours to discover local initiatives; 10 thematic forums (International Instruments, Youth, Care, Agrarian Reform, Education, Bioeconomy, Microfinance, Women and Diversity, Decent Work, Solidarity Communication) spread across different universities in the city; and political plenary sessions featuring speeches by Mauricio Rodríguez Amaya, National Director of Unidad Solidaria, and Yolanda Díaz, Spanish Minister of Labour and Social Economy and Second Vice-President of the Spanish Government.

The GSEF presented its international advocacy strategy at the opening plenary, alongside other SSE networks and platforms, and took part in two sessions within the “International Instruments for the Development of Economies for Life” forum, organized at the Javeriana University in Cali. In addition, the Cooperative University of Colombia, a GSEF member since 2022, participated in the “International Instruments for the Development of Economies for Life” forum.

The meetings provided an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the various international networks and movements involved, all of which have signed the International Pact for Economies for Life. This text aims to “join the efforts of governments, movements and organizations to implement resolutions, declarations and agreements that promote solidarity-based models of development”. We, the organizations, movements and platforms of ESSPC (social, solidarity, popular and community-based economies), jointly call on governments to concretely implement national and international instruments, public policies and collective actions that make UN Resolution 77/281 a reality. We propose the creation of regional forums to monitor the implementation of these international actions, as well as a Global Observatory on Economies for Life. We pledge, among other things, to accompany and support the UNTFSSE, and to coordinate our agendas to put economies for life at the heart of negotiations at the United Nations Conference on Financing for Development.

Download the Pact