GSEF hosted the Asia Policy Dialogue 2017 (hereon APD 2017) from June 30 to July 1, 2017, at Seoul City Hall (Seosomun Complex) by inviting more than 60 participants from 16 different countries. The theme of APD 2017 was “Effective public policy design for fostering social economy as leverage for inclusive development in Asia.” APD 2017 was hosted as a back-to-back event immediately following the 8^th ILO SSE Academy, and the dialogue created a platform for participants and speakers of the academy to have an in-depth conversation about the construction of SSE policies.

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[Photo from Seoul Social Economy Center]

APD 2017 kicked off with the tour of SSE 10^th Anniversary Expo at Seoul Square. This expo celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the establishment of the SSE legal framework in Korea as well as Korea’s 'SSE Day (July 1^st).’ Over 180 social businesses participated in the event, and this year's expo was the largest scale ever. Four sectors of SSE were presented at the event: community enterprise, cooperative, social enterprise and self-supportive enterprises. Furthermore, booths at the expo reflected 7 themes of the event (▲welfare ▲cultural art ▲environment ▲housing ▲education ▲food ▲Fair Trade&travel). The foreign participants of APD 2017, under the guidance of the SE guide, were given the opportunity to tour the facility and get to learn about the effect of SSE in the daily lives of Korean citizens.

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On the second day of the event, July 1^st, 2017, the official APD 2017 kicked off at Seosomun Complex. The event was organized broadly as a keynote address, panel discussion, and group case study session. Experts of SSE from across Asia discussed ways to establish and practice sustainable development strategies in Asia and shared their cases. Detailed information on APD 2017 will be updated on GSEF homepage later.

Ⅰ. Keynote Speech

Ⅱ. Plenary Session 1 – Panel Discussion: SSE Alternative Urban Development Model – the Similarities and Differences in Asia

In Plenary Session 1, panellists from government, social enterprises, civic organizations, intermediary organization and workers' cooperative etc. were given the opportunity to introduce the efforts taken by his/her organization. 6 cases, all in relevance to 5 common questions, were presented. Topics in the discussion were: 1. Asia’s common agenda on development,  2. The meaning of SSE at the urban level,  3. Challenges of urban society and the role that SSE plays in overcoming these challenges,  4. Efforts taken by the organization that panellists are associated with took to overcome such challenges,  5 — partnership amongst organizations to ensure the most effective achievements of SSE.

Ⅲ. Plenary Session 2 – Panel Discussion: Innovative Cases of Resolving Urban Dilemma through SSE

The following plenary session gave the opportunity for each country to talk about the challenges and strategies to overcome such urban crisis through innovative socio-economic approaches. Speakers evenly represented gender and region (Korean-ASEAN-South Asian, etc.), which abled equal-representation of various nations and how social, economic methods were applied in these nations.

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Ⅳ. Case Study

The last event of APD 2017 was a group case study. Case studies were based on real-life examples in Asia but were first presented to the participants anonymously. Through the case study, participants were given the opportunity to discuss solutions that would resolve the initial problem of each case. After the real case was revealed to the participants and they were then given the opportunity to compare their results to the actual case to come up with a new approach.

* All resources including panellists' presentation slides and case study materials are accessible here: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzxsfqQAp_mUeWRSdnZKVlVJX1k/view?usp=sharing

* Comprehensive APD 2017 report will be uploaded on GSEF homepage in the upcoming month