Announcement
- 8^th ILO SSE Academy registration
- GSEF annual membership fee payment

Latest News
- C.I.T.I.E.S Steering Committee Meeting

SSE Policy Review
- Urban regeneration case - Technopole Angus

Upcoming Events
- ILO global dialogue 'future of work'
- New Economy Event
- European Summer School on Solidarity Economy
- WeGO Smart Sustainable City Awards
- 8^th edition of the Mont-Blanc Meetings

Registration for the 8^th ILO-ITC Social and Solidarity Economy Academy is now open for public. The 8^th SSE Academy is the first edition of the Academy taking place in Asia Seoul; one of the most progressive cities in the region in building inclusive urban development strategies based on the social economy principles.

For 5 days, participants of the Academy will be able to engage with stimulating discussions on establishing SSE eco-systems with emphasis on the employment generation, governance, social finance and co-construction of public policies. Round tables, site visits followed by SSE elective courses will be offered for participants. For further details of the Academy programme including the registration, please visit the ILO SSE Academy webpage.

Also participants could be invited to join the Asia Policy Dialogue 2017 which will take place as back to back event with the SSE Academy from 30^th Jun to 1^st Jul to enable participants to further engage with more specific policy oriented and region focused group discussions. For further details of the APD2017 including the programme, please check out the GSEF webpage.

As decided by the 2^nd GSEF General Assembly in Montreal (9^th Sep 2016), GSEF annual membership fee payment has been resumed from year 2017 onwards for enalbing GSEF to become more independent and self-sustaining global association. For those who wish to join the GSEF association, membership fee for the year in which organisations submit their membership applications will be exempted.

To get to know more about the GSEF membership, please refer to the GSEF webpage and contact GSEF secretariat (gsef@gsef-net.org)

GSEF joined the C.I.T.I.E.S (International Centre for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer on the Social and Solidarity Economy) Steering Committee meeting via conference call. This year's first C.I.T.I.E.S steering committee meeting was held on 7^th of March via Skype by bringing representatives of founding partners from Seoul, Barcelona, Bilbao and Montreal. Partner cities discussed some of the important agendas for the successful launch and operation of the C.I.T.I.E.S. Agenda items including contribution plans of partners, charters, programme plans were covered. To get know to more about C.I.T.I.E.S and if you would like to engage with its global projects and to discuss partnership opportunities, please contact info@cities-ess.org.

Societe de developpement Angus (SDA-Angus Development Company) is a renowned social enterprise and its redevelopment of industrial ruins in favour of neighbourhood (Technopole Angus) is one of the best urban regeneration cases. Technopole Angus, is a business complex creating more than 2,300 employers (of which 1,500 are local residents) and accommodating 55 companies including cooperatives and social social enterprises in sectors covering health care, services, IT and multimedia.

In 1992, when the biggest rail company CPR Angus closed down, unemployment problems has become an serious issue of the Rosemont neighbourhood as the number of workers the company employed plummeted from 12,000 to 1,000. Consequently, the area experienced rapid economic decline and the land became an abandoned area with industrial ruins.

Against the initial plan of renewaling the area as a fancy shopping mall, for 10 years Societe de developpement Angus (SDA) in close cooperation with the local community, CDEC and Montreal City administration went through a series of consultation processes to make urban development more sustainable and community favoured. Also funding from a labour unions and social finance institutions such as Fonds d'action CSN and Caisse d'economie solidaire Desjardins played an important role for realising the project.

Now the industrial ruins have been transformed become into a business park demondtrating sustainability and urban revitalisation for the interests of community with the social purpose and environmental consideration rather than profit maximization.

According to Montreal Gazette, in addition to its previous housing projects, which provided more than 6,300 residences (24% of them are social housing), since 2015 Technopole Angus has entered its Phase 2 of the project working on creating eco-friendly social housing (350~500 residences) to attract families as well as 20 local businesses serving the local community.

To find more about the Technopole Angus visit its website

The International Labor Organization will host the global dialogue to discuss significant transformations which will create the future workplace. The enhancement of workplace is one of important sectors of social economy in terms of quality and sustainable employment. The organization has recognized that numerous recent changes in the world in terms of climate, demographic, technology, inequality, economic stagnation, and other sectors, will impact on the future workplaces in a long term.

The symposium aims to obtain great understanding of the changes we have been faced with and to develop effective policy responses that shape the future workplaces. The specific sessions of the symposium will be 'wok and society', 'decent jobs for all', 'the organization of work and production', and 'the governance of work'. You can check more information and register here.

The main theme of the event is about construction and participation in the new economy and society. This session is organized by The Great Transition, The Green Business, Netherlands Tilts, Nudge, Social Enterprise NL, and other prominent social enterprises and foundations. The event will include entrepreneurs, managers, policy makers and practitioners from government, business, healthcare, education and other agencies to seek for more impacts on a changing society, utilize entities' talents as well as roles and potentials, and communicate with others.

The event will start with opening plenary and three parallel sessions including 'impact from individual', 'impact from organization', 'impact from coalition', and 'special sessions'. You can register for the event from here and for further information about this event, click the link here (available only in Dutch).

The term of Solidarity Economy has been used in various countries including Latin America, Portugal, and several countries in Europe. Till now, the term has transformed and it includes Social Economy as well.. This is the combination of collective economic arrangements of production, consumption, trading, credit, in rural or urban areas, social reproduction and well-being from the first part, and the latter social economy includes cooperatives, associations and mutual societies and other terms such as third sector, social enterprises and social entrepreneurship.

The CES Summer School will explore about the common points and the differences about things happening between Southern Europe and other countries of the European continent to highlight the multiplicity and diversity of economic experiences. This Summer School is the one of the first events of the international platform SERESI (Solidarity Economy, Reciprocity and Social Innovation). Please check out more information here. For submitting the application please visit the webpage.

WeGO (World e-Government Organization of Cities and Local Governments) is giving the Sustainable City Awards to recongnise and promote the outstanding practices of cities in the field of smart city, innovation and open city. The WeGO Smart Sustainable City Awards aims to encourage the incorporation of innovative ICT technology for the enhancement of administrative efficiency; increase citizen access to public services; and to actively share knowledge on innovative smart and sustainable city strategies.

WeGO accepts submissions from 6 different categories.

1. Open city
2. Innovative Smart City
3. E-Government Service
4. Sustainable City
5. Digital Inclusion
6. Cooperative City

Winners of the awards will be honoured at the the WeGO Smart Sustainable City Awards Ceremony going to be held at the 4^th WeGO General Assembly (27^th - 30^th Jun, Ulyanovsk Region, Russia). For further details of the award and submission click the link here.

The 8^th Mont-Blanc Meetings (now ESS Forum International: International Forum of the Social and Solidarity Economy Entrepreneurs) is going to be held from 6^th to 8^th December in Archamps. The central theme of the forum is 'Social and Solidarity Economy: The New Efficiency' and diverse aspects of SSE in relation to sustainable development, democratic governance and measuring effectiveness will be addressed through various programmes. For early registration and further information about the forum please reach contact@rencontres-montblanc.coop.