Announcement
- GSEF Asia Policy Dialogue Call for Proposals
- 2017 Metropolis Montreal Conference Call for Contributions

Latest News
- GSEF Steering Committee (SC) Conference Call
- GSEF meetings with partners in Europe

Organization Introduction
- RTES

Upcoming Events
- CSMO-ESAC Training Sessions
- Bahamas Symposium
- UCLG Culture Summit

Call for innovative public policies, best practices and research papers for the Asia Policy Dialogue (APD) 2017 is now open. APD 2017, the regional initiative to promote policy dialogues on social economy will be held in Seoul for two days (30 Jun - 1 Jul). The central theme of the APD 2017 is ‘Effective public policy design for fostering Social Enterprises (SEs) and Social Innovation as a leverage for inclusive socioeconomic and sustainable development in Asia'. Selected proposals will be presented during the conference and three winners of the best proposals will receive a grant to cover their travel expenses to Seoul. All presentations and discussions during the APD will be broadcasted through SNS media and APD2017 report will be published for the public.

Eligibility: Elected officials and central/local government representatives responsible for the construction/implementation of public policies, private sector players, practitioners/representatives of civil society and academics in Asia / Asia-Pacific.

Subtheme: Subthemes of APD 2017 in which applicants may focus on their proposal writings are: public policies and Women / Youth / Housing / Social services

Format: Maximum 1,000 words that outline the overall situation of the applicants' respective city and/or country's public policies and development status of SEs. The proposal should be focused on one or more of the sub-themes listed above. (Applicants can submit further supporting materials such as the full length of research papers, audio-visual materials related to the project proposal, policy briefs as attachments). All applications should be sent to gsef@gsef-net.org

* For further details of the APD call for proposals please check out the GSEF webpage.

The XII World Congress of Metropolis calls for its collaboration to enrich the programming and to moderate the debates between the participants. The Congress will take place in Montreal from 19 to 22 Jun 2017. Various plenary sessions, workshops and side events will be presented along the main theme of the conference ‘Global Challenges: Major Cities in Action'. 6 thematic topic in which applicants shall focus on their contributions are as below.

1. Smart Metropolis
2. Metropolis and Environment
3. Inclusion and Community Life
4. Mobility and Distribution of Territory
5. Economic Development, Collaborative Economy and Circular Economy
6. Metropolitan Leadership and Governance

Applications can contribute to the conference by organizing sessions or facilitated discussions or presentations or submitting posters. GSEF in partnership with the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), C.I.T.I.E.S. and the Seoul Metropolitan Government will engage with the discussions by putting social economy as one of the main agenda items for cities aiming to achieve inclusive socioeconomic development by jointly organization of sessions and peer learning events during the conference.

For further details of the call for contributions can be found here.
You can also find out more about the conferences such as programmes at the metropolis 2017 website.

GSEF SC meeting via conference call held on 12th Jan. in total 12 GSEF SC organizations and 16 representatives and project manager of C.I.T.I.E.S also joined the call. Through the SC meeting, various agenda items were discussed such as GSEF project plans for the coming year as well as approval of 5 new membership applications from 4 local governments including Peru (Carabayllo, Ate, Pimentel), Uganda (Kampala City - Nakawa Division ) and the SSE network ‘HomeNet Pakistan'

Below are the main agenda addressed through the GSEF SC conference call

• Annual Membership fee payments (to be resumed from 2017)
• Review of GSEF main project plans (ILO-GSEF SSE Academy in June, Regional Policy Dialogues (Jun, Oct), Youth Camp for Social Innovation and SE (Aug), Hosting and Participating international meetings and conferences
• Development of C.I.T.I.E.S projects

Further details of the SC meeting minutes will be uploaded on the GSEF website soon.

GSEF payed a visit to Europe to have a series of meetings with leading IOs, SSE networks and the city of Bilbao which is the GSEF2018 hosting city.

In Lylle, with RTES (an association of local municipalities in France Governments), GSEF discussed areas of cooperation such as capacity building of local governments and joint projects in the field of social economy. GSEF also attended the Mont-Blanc Meetings (one of the GSEF's SC members headquartered in Paris) to participate in MBM's project of reshaping its organisational design to international forum.

GSEF also had a meeting with UCLG in Barcelona to discuss process of establishing SE working group under the UCLG structure as well as preparing for the joint peer learning session at the Metropolis Congress in Montreal this June.

With the City of Bilbao (the hosting city of GSEF2018), efforts of mobilizing SSE civil society networks based in Basque and the preparation schedules for the forum will be addressed through a series of meetings.

RTES (The Network of Territorial Communities for a Solidarity Economy) is one of organizations that GSEF actively engages to share ideas and information about the development of the social and solidarity economy (SSE). RTES is a charter to connect 125 municipalities, regions, departments, and inter-municipalities related to the SSE. The organization aims to achieve four agendas;

1. RTES promotes the initiatives of the territories through off-line and on-line media.
2. RTES enhances the quality of actions carried by national and European authorities.
3. RTES promotes the transfer of good practices of the SSE through exchanges, debates, and trainings.
4. RTES seeks for conditions to improve the policies implemented. It is also one of the first signatories of the joint declaration of the networks of local authorities in favor of the SSE.

One of their recent activities was a conference called "Local authorities and the social economy in France: Converting the try" that convened in May 12th, 2016. The conference discussed about the outcome of France's adoption of a framework law assigning general interest missions to the social economy, and contract between local authorities and social economy enterprises as well as implemented policies regarding the social economy.

With active participation of 50 mayors and policy makers from cities in France along with the support from RTES, the conference discussed several important topics such as recent progress of social economy model targeting for sustainable local development including presentations of local government social economy policies, and others. Brief specifics about the conference are hyperlinked as follow: RTES conference

Along with their successful conference, RTES also regularly organizes debates and discussions with the SSE authorities, and training days several times a year. The organization also strengthens the SSE in public policy of its members and practical usage of those policies in national and European institutions. Moreover, RTES is also a part of PTCE (A Territorial Pole of Economic Cooperation), which collects a group of actors in the SSE associated with small-medium sized enterprises, local authorities, research centers, and training organizations for the development of the social and solidarity economy. Details about their main actions are hyperlinked as follow (Only available in French): RTES

The main objective of this training is to help people to carry out and implement a knowledge transfer action plan in the organization. This training tries to connect more issues regarding succession of social economy and community action over the world.

If you're interested in, visit the website.

The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and SAMOA Pathway recognized for the specific challenges faced by Small Island Developing Counties (SIDS) and their vulnerability to the climate changes. Thus, the government of the Bahamas, with the support of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, will organize a Symposium in February 2016 on "Implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SAMOA Pathway in Small Island Developing States (SIDS): Equipping public institutions and mobilizing partnerships".

If you are interested in, click here.
More information for the symposium click the link.

The United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Culture Summit will be the main point to convene cities, local governments and other stakeholders which contribute to the effective implementation of policies and programmes on culture and sustainability. The Summit will mainly discuss about the role of culture in sustainable development, especially of cities and local governments. The Summit prepares for 300 participants from all over the world, so please email to info@agenda21culture.net if you are interested in. Click here for more information about the Summit.