Announcement
- GSEF 2016 the grand finale!
- 1^st GSEF Policy Review Publication: Case study of Seoul

Latest News
- GSEF 2016 GA Outcomes
- GSEF attended the Social Enterprise Submit (SES) & Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF)

Organisation Introduction
- City of Bilbao

Upcoming Events
- 5^th UCLG Congress World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders
- Habitat III

GSEF2016 which took place in Montreal from 6^th to 9^th of September reached its grand finale. Over 1,500 participants from 330 cities, 62 countries, over 200 government officials and 9 international organisations gathered in Montreal to promote the social and solidarity economy in a global scale. The central theme of GSEF2016 was ‘the collaboration between local governments and organisations of the social and solidarity economy (SSE)’ and selected 120 best social economy practices presented along with 11 working groups by different SSE themes. As the outcome of the GSEF2016, the Montreal Declaration; the promise of commitments of 1,500 participants across continents for the development of SSE was adopted. One of the main outcomes of the GSEF2016, the International Centre for Innovation and Knowledge Transfer on the Social and Solidarity Economy (C.I.T.I.E.S) officially launched with the commitments from local governments and SSE networks from the City of Seoul, Montreal, Mondragon, Bilbao and Barcelona. As a close partner institution of GSEF, C.I.T.I.E.S will assist GSEF to achieve its mission by providing various programmes to the GSEF members such as advisory services, study missions, exchange programmes and research projects. A full report of the plenary sessions, workshops and working group discussions will be published soon and will be available on the GSEF websites.

GSEF's first SSE research project on modelling social economy developments of cities- a case study of Seoul, published in collaboration with Karl Polany Research Institute Asia (author) is now available both in English and French versions. The full version of the report will be available by the end of 2016. The GSEF policy review series intend to introduce different social economy development strategies of GSEF member cities such as Seoul, Quebec, Basque to provide a broad policy reference on the way to formulate the strategy for utilising the SSE for the sustainable urban development. GSEF is also in consultation with UNRISD in publishing comprehensive research projects on the outlook of SSE in different cities including the City of Seoul.

Along with the main forum, the 2^nd General Assembly of GSEF was held and important agenda items of the association such as deciding the next GSEF2018 hosting city were formally approved through the General Assembly. Below is the list of key decisions made by the approval of the GA.

▶ Host City for the Next General Assembly 2018

GA elected Bilbao City, Spain; the leading SSE city in Europe as a host city of the GSEF2018.

▶ Election of Chair-city & Co-chair of GSEF for 2016 – 2018

The city of Seoul has renewed its mandate as the Chair-city of GSEF (Seoul Metropolitan Government: Mayor Won-Soon Park, Seoul Social Economy Network: Rev. Kyong Yong Song).

▶ Approval of New Membership Applications

GA formally approved 10 new membership applications The list of new GSEF members are

RIPESS (International Network), The Mont-Blanc Meetings (International Network), City of Bilbao (Spain), Taichung City Government (Taiwan), City of Bamako (Mali), Mexico City Council (Mexico), Maison du Millénaire (Quebec), Institut des nations, INDC (Tunisia / Morocco), Network of Civic Education (DRC), Network of Social Economy (Ecuador)

▶ Election of New Steering Committee Members for the period 2016-2018

RIPESS, the Mont-Blanc Meetings, City of Bilbao are approved to be the new GSEF Steering Committee members (full membership) and current GSEF SC members renewed their mandate for the period of 2016-2018.

▶ GSEF joined the leading Int’l SSE Networks: RIPESS, Association of the Mont-Blanc Meetings (MBM) and International Leading Group of the SSE

GSEF joined RIPESS as a member, a board member of The Mont-Blanc Meetings and an observer of the International Leading Group of the SSE.

Moreover, other agenda items such as approval of GSEF 2017-2018 activity plans, charter amendments, achieving the legal status were discussed. To check out all agenda items discussed during the GA you can download the GSEF2016 GA booklet and the outcome report on the GSEF website.

GSEF Team manager Jinkyung Choi attended the Social Enterprise Summit (SES) and the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) both took place in Hong Kong. Through the conferences, GSEF extended its global network with social entrepreneurs, SSE orgnisations and researchers from around the globe and discussed with the stakeholders for the possibility of collaboration in implementing GSEF’s 2017-2018 strategic projects such as regional policy dialogues (Asia / Europe), youth projects for young entrepreneurs. In SEWF, more than 1,000 participants, including social entrepreneurs, SSE organisations and academics gathered to discuss the contribution of social entrepreneurship in creating social values and social market ecosystem. In the SES, topics of social innovation, social impact assessment, multi-sector collaboration and modeling social innovation in different contexts were covered. Through the exchanges of ideas and knowledges, GSEF was able to broaden its agenda which will be reflected in its future strategic activities. For the details of the conferences, please check out the links of SES and SEWF.

The city of Bilbao, the leading city in the field of social and solidarity economy and particularly for its experience of urban regeneration for the sustainable city development, has joined the GSEF as a steering committee member. Furthermore, the city of Bilbao will host the next edition of the GSEF 2018 to share Basque country’s visions and knowledge with international SSE stakeholders and local governments from around the globe. GSEF2018 will involve the Basque Government, The Municipality of Arrasate-Mongragón, The provincial council of Bizkaia, the city Council of Bilbao as well as civil society networks such as Confekoop, ASLE, Sareen Sarean, EUDEL, EHLABE, Gizatea and Reas Euskadi.

Basque Country Outlook

There are 3,500 active third sector organisations. It is the distribution: 57% (2,000 firms) have their headquarters in Bizkaia Province (of which Bilbao is the capital city and in which the 53.31% of the Bizkaian social institutions are concentrated), 29% is located in Gipuzkoa Province and the rest, 14% are located in the Araba Province (500). 

Concerning the employment figures, the third sector in the Basque Country employs around 36,000 people that provide a paid work (part time and full time work) and it articulates the participation of around 125,000 volunteers.

In 2013, the Basque economic volume of the sector was of 1,451 million euros, which is equivalent to 2.2% of GDP of the Basque Country.

Recent Steps in the SSE

Basque Parliament has recently adopted the law that unifies in a same standard the operation and principles of non-profit organisations working in the third sector social (3,500) organisations - working on the promotion of social solidarity, as well as on the promotion of social participation of people, social rights inclusion and social cohesion.

In this sense, third social sector of the Basque country now has a legal framework that, among other things, regulates its participation in the design of social policies that the Basque institutions will implement in the next few years.

Concerning the cooperation with other organisations, Bilbao City highlight the cooperation with the university, in which the sharing of people and resources is a reality. In fact, the Third Sector and the university develop jointly research activities, awareness activities and they exchange know how, as well as the academic education.

To find out more about the initiatives of Bilbao City please check out www.bilbao.net

The 5^th UCLG Congress World Summit will be held in Bogota this October under the theme ‘’Local voices for a better world’’. By brining representatives from local/regional governments, the UCLG Summit will showcase the efforts of cities from around the world in achieving sustainable city development through various workshops and policy dialogues. The 5th UCLG Congress will be held in conjunction with the Habitat III, which will take place in Quito-right after the finale of the UCLG conference (17^th – 20^th, Oct). GSEF will attend the UCLG congress to strengthen its global network with local governments and will discuss with representatives on the way to incorporate the Social and Solidarity Economy as a foundation for the sustainable urban development. Also GSEF will explore a possibility of establishing a SSE working group under UCLG with the stakeholders. To find out more details about the Congress and registration, visit the UCLG2016 Bogota website.

Habitat III, the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development will be taking place in Quito, Ecuador from the 17^th to 20^th of October. The Habitat III will adopt the New Urban Agenda which will guide the path for the next 20 years’ sustainable urban development strategies and commitments for the cities around the world. Through the Habitat III conference, various side events, special sessions on the urban development issues such as housing, municipal finance, urban resilience and smart cities will be discussed by city representatives and international stakeholders. Also, its implementation plans will be formulated through high-level roundtables scheduled throughout the conference. GSEF will attend the Habitat III this October to continue its efforts of promoting SSE’s contribut to the New Urban Agenda. For further details of the forum: visit the Habitat III website.