The 2017-2020 Spanish Social Economy Strategy (available in Spanish only - attached)

(introduction from ILO)

The Spanish Strategy of the Social Economy 2017-2020, approved by the Council of Ministers on December 29 2017, was published on March 20 2018 in the Boletín Oficial del Estado – BOE (Official State Gazette). According to the adopted Agreement, the Strategy "responds to the need to take into account and promote the specificities of social economy enterprises and organizations in the single market, as well as to include and support social economy enterprises and organizations through programmes, projects and funds, and in the innovative and sustainable development of an adequate financial ecosystem".

The strategy mentions the discussions spaces generated by the ILO at the highest level in favour of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), in particular through the United Nations Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy and its effort to contribute to the creation of decent work through the SSE. Among the specific measures contained in the Strategy, point 40 of axis 7 on page 31300 states: "Promote the participation of Spain in the Academy on Social and Solidarity Economy of the International Labour Organization. The objective is to favour the Spanish presence in the high-level capacity building programme in the field of social and solidarity economy developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), through its International Training Center."

Consequently, we are going to organize the next Academy on Social and Solidarity Economy in Spain, tentatively in the second part of 2018. More information will be provided in due time.

The 2017-2020 Spanish Social Economy Strategy is a document elaborated by the General Directorate of Autonomous Work, Social Economy and CSR of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security through the State Secretariat of Employment. The document was elaborated with the contributions of other ministerial departments, the Autonomous Communities, as well as representative entities of the sector, social partners and CIRIEC-Spain, which has collaborated fundamentally in the drafting of Axis 5, on the promotion of the Digital Economy in Social Economy enterprises and organizations. The 2017-2020 Strategy aims to reinforce and promote the values of the social economy, as well as its iteration in Spanish society, highlighting its vocation for the generation of employment and its "enormous contribution to social cohesion".

The objective is "the implementation of instruments that promote the entities of the social economy, with special attention to those that support employment in the most disadvantaged sectors and with roots in their territory." The document underlines how enterprises and organizations of the Social Economy have become a "fundamental standard of economic recovery and the sustainable and inclusive economic growth of our country". The Social and Solidarity Economy is a sector that is present in all economic areas, with enterprises and organizations of all sizes and whose contribution "is today indisputable in strategic policies related to the creation and maintenance of employment or the promotion of entrepreneurship, especially among young people".

The Strategy is structured around eleven strategic axes and sixty-three measures, which address different key aspects for the development of the sector. Support for employment and entrepreneurship in the field of social economy; the impulse needed for the consolidation of enterprises and organizations; the elimination of legal barriers that limit the development of the sector; the generation of innovative mechanisms for the participation of the Social Economy in strategic sectors; the promotion of the digital economy in social economy entities; the promotion of the institutional participation of the sector; the development of the social economy within the framework of the international agenda and especially in Ibero-America, Europe and the Mediterranean; increasing the visibility of social economy entities and disseminating their activity; the promotion of gender equality and social inclusion; the promotion of CSR in companies in the sector, and the participation of the social economy in the design and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).