Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: What Role for Social and Solidarity Economy? International Conference

Date: 25 – 26 June 2019

  • Time: 9.00-17.00
  • Location: Room II, III and IV at R3 South, ILO, Geneva. Enter through gate 4 (R2 North)
  • Donor(s): Government of the Republic of Korea, represented by Statistics Korea; Ministry of Labour, Employment, Social Economy and Economic Solidarity of Luxembourg; UNRISD; ILO
Reema Nanavaty, General Secretary of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), addresses conference in a video message after illness prevented her from participating in person.

This event was part of a series of conferences resulting from the Call for Papers “Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: What Role for Social and Solidarity Economy?” launched by the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE) in 2018. It aimed to identify and mobilize research from different regions and territories which, by critically examining the role of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), can contribute to the UNTFSSE’s efforts to scale up and promote SSE as means of implementation of the SDGs. 

A detailed programme is available here, and the Conference Summary can be downloaded here.

This two-day conference would:

  • provide a space for researchers, practitioners and policy decision-makers to share and exchange evidence and ideas about the connections between SSE and people, planet, prosperity, participation and partnerships in different local contexts;
  • demonstrate, through evidence-based analysis, concrete ways in which SSE contributes to sustainable development, and to the implementation and achievement of the SDGs; and
  • contribute to enhancing the visibility of SSE as a means of implementation of the SDGs within and beyond the UN system.

Invited speakers included 43 paper presenters (identified through the Call for Papers that generated proposals from more than 320 researchers from 60 countries); personnel from UN agencies, particularly the members of the UNTFSSE; and representatives of civil society organizations.

The Conference was carried out with the support of seed funding from the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Social Economy and Economic Solidarity of Luxembourg and the Republic of Korea in addition to ILO and UNRISD institutional funds.

English