Announcement
- Steering Committee Meeting updates
- GSEF new website

Latest News
- Social economy lecture series: Paul Carttar
- GSEF team visited Germany and Finland

Special Features
- RIPESS

Upcoming Events
- Seoul social responsibility procurement exhibition
- The 2015 Sharing Value Asia Summit ‘Delivering Impact with Scale’
- 3rd World forum of Local Economic Development

GSEF Steering Committee Meeting updates

Forthcoming GSEF Steering Committee meeting has been rescheduled to 4 – 5 November 2015. In addition to plenary sessions for discussing GSEF projects, GSEF 2016 preparation and issues to be approved by the SC members, seminars on SSE will be held as side events. Topics are ‘social economy and social welfare’, ‘Asia policy dialogue for promoting SSE’, ‘Social investment and Social Impact Bonds (SIB)’ and EASII (East Asia Social Innovation Initiative) workshop.

• Title: 2015 The Global Social Economy Forum (GSEF) Steering Committee Meeting
• Date/ Venue: 4 (Wed) ~ 5 (Thu) November 2015 / Seoul City Hall, Citizens’ Hall
• Main Events: the GSEF Steering Committee Meeting Plenary session and Seminars
• Participants: GSEF SC members and approximately 50 participants of SE organisations from Korea and abroad including Mr. Won-soon Park (Seoul Metropolitan Government) Ms. Nancy Neamtan (Chantier Économie Sociale), Ms. Nania Batra (AVPN).
• Schedules:
  • 4. Nov (Wed)
    

    - SC Preparatory meeting, seminars on Asia Policy Dialogue for promoting SSE (14 organisations from 9 Asian countries including Singapore Center for Social Enterprise and Taiwan Social enterprise insights) and EASII workshop (China and Japan)

  • 5. Nov (Thu)
    

    - SC plenary session, Social Economy and Social Welfare seminar (local governments including Setagaya City, City of Montreal, Seoul Metropolitan Government and Locality)
    - Social Investment & SIB seminar(Speakers including Ms. Jane Newman, Social Finance UK and Emma Tomkinson, SIB policy advisor to Australia Gov.)

Download 2015 The GSEF Steering Committee Outline

GSEF new website

New GSEF website is now available (www.gsef-net.org). The website currently in its initial stage and is expected to finalise the contents and menus by the end of coming October. If you would like to share your organisations/local governments’ social economy related initiatives, please send us e-mail (gsef@gsef-net.org).

A newly launched GSEF website will serve as a knowledge hub for sharing vision and mission of members. Members will be able to share their best practices in social economy with larger community. Also, the website will provide information of social economy research trends, latest activities of member cities and social economy organisations.

For GSEF2016, please sign up for the newsletter to be kept abreast of news regarding the GSEF 2016 in Montreal (call for proposals, registration deadlines, related activities, etc.).
http://gsef2016.org/

Paul Carttar Social Innovation Fund Lecture

Paul Carttar, former director of Obama administration’s Social Innovation Fund - an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), gave a lecture on ‘Future of Social Innovation Fund and Role of Government’ on the 24^th September 2015 in Seoul. The lecture was organised by Association of Korean Local Governments for Social Economy and Solidarity, AVPN, SSEN and funded by Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Social Economy Center. The first series of social economy lecture was given on the 7^th Sep 2015 by Helena Norberg-Hodge on ‘Localisation – envisioning the future and learning form the past.

GSEF visited Germany and Finland

GSEF co-chairman Rev. Kyong Yong Song and Ms. Eunae Lee, CEO of Seoul Social Economy Center accompanied by the press, social entrepreneurs and NGO Seed:s. Visited Germany and Finland to attend the Solikon 2015 Berlin and to visit social economy organisations.

Solikon 2015 – RIPESS Europe Congress Berlin, 8 – 13 Sep.

The GSEF team attended the Solikon 2015 Berlin conference as well as visited social economy organisations in Berlin such as Weiberwirtschaft. During the RIPESS 2015 Europe Congress, GSEF team had a series of meetings with the RIPESS board members to discuss partnership and to strengthen the tie between the two organisations. Also, Rev. Kyong Yong Song gave a presentation about the GSEF during the RIPESS General Assembly.

Finland Social innovation cases Helsinki and Espoo, 13 – 15 Sep.

The GSEF team visited Alto University, Helsinki University, Pellervo and SITRA to explore the Finnish experience of social innovation.

RIPESS Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy

RIPESS is a network of continental networks that connects social solidarity economy networks throughout the world. The continental networks (RIPESS-LAC, RIPESS-EU, RIPESS-NA, RAESS and ASEC) in turn bring together national and sectoral networks. RIPESS believes in the importance of global solidarity in order to build and strengthen an economy that puts people and planet front and center. From Lima (1997) to Quebec (2001), from Dakar (2005) to Luxembourg (2009) and Manila (2013), RIPESS organizes global forums every four years and is a nexus for learning, information sharing and international collaboration.

RIPESS’ mission is to build and promote the social solidarity economy (SSE), which takes into account the social and ethical dimension in all its economic activities. Thus the SSE aims to produce, exchange and consume goods and services that answer the economic and social needs of the local and international communities.

Seoul social responsibility procurement exhibition 09:00 – 18:00, 29 – 30 Oct 2015, Seoul

The exhibition intends to promote social responsibility public procurement. Various social enterprises, cooperatives and community enterprises together with Seoul Metropolitan Government and other Korean local governments will be attending the exhibition.

The exhibition based on the MOU on public procurement for social values which was signed on this July by 34 local governments in Korea and institutions including Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul Office of Education, Association of Korean Local Governments for Social Economy and Solidarity.

The 2015 Sharing Value Asia Summit
‘Delivering Impact with Scale’ 08:30 – 19:00, 1 Oct 2015, Singapore

Central to this year’s summit will be a robust analysis of the benefits of using partnership and shared value models to both cement long term business growth in place and at the same time tackle some of the most intractable social, environmental and economic problems.

3rd World forum of Local Economic Development 13 – 16 Oct 2015, Torino

The Third Local Economic Development Forum will explore how the Local Economic Development approach can be considered as a tool for implementing the post 2015 development agenda and will delve into three main thematic areas:

1. 1. Regional competitiveness and innovation for sustainable and inclusive development.
2. 2. Towards local inclusive growth and jobs.
3. 3. LED strategies for creating positive urban rural linkages.