RIPESS accelerated its activities in international political advocacy and in SSE public policies promotion during 2021 thanks to the cooperation agreement signed by RIPESS and the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation in 2020. For the first time since the creation of RIPESS Intercontinental 25 years ago, the network received funding for a structured advocacy and public policies project. There was specific emphasis on African advocacy as well as in Latin America, as well as the overall policy push through international institutions, and specifically our work at UN level with the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE) and our input to the UN High Level Political Forum on the SDGs. We participated in the usual international advocacy arenas, in the structuring of new ones, and in progressively tried to integrate the sub-regional dimensions of advocacy of our continental members more systematically.

 

In terms of international advocacy, 2021 was a busy year:

 

– RIPESS worked together with the UNTFSSE in a process of regionalisation of the Taskforce in 2022, to ensure that SSE networks and actors on all continents are involved in the relevant actions the task force has implemented. The process was launched in a co-organised session within the GSEF 2021 in México City. Together with the rest of the members, RIPESS has been working on the main priorities of the task force such as an SSE UN Resolution.

– The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) was a very relevant event in terms of advocacy for RIPESS. A very successful official side event was organised in July 2021, together with the Global Platform for the Right to the City. It included speakers from the UNTFSSE, the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism of the UN Committee on Food Security and Nutrition, the ILO Cooperative Division and WIEGO, on the theme “Overcoming Inequalities through Covid-19 Recovery“. Concrete proposals were put on the table of the United Nations, and RIPESS members and networks contributed to the proposed inclusion of SSE in some Voluntary National Reviews.

– RIPESS is co-leading the Governance group of the Pact for Impact – Global Alliance Initiative, launched in 2019 by France.

– The networks also had great presence in the GSEF 2021 organised in México City. 5 official sessions were organized by RIPESS members, including one co-organised with the UNTFSSE. To know more, visit HERE.

 

The cooperation with the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation also enhanced our activities in relation to the co-construction of SSE-friendly Public Policies and programmes. The cooperation mainly focused on allowing RIPESS LAC and RAESS Africa to document practices of co-construction of local and national SSE Public Policies or programmes, and to encourage exchanges on post-Covid resilience. It also helped to support the strengthening of the advocacy work of national networks. To know more, visit our Resources page.

 

To support all this work in advocacy and public policies development, RIPESS has started to produce more concrete promotion tools: in addition to more frequent articles on different international advocacy activities, RIPESS has published two guides compiling SSE field experiences: one on SSE and the SDGs, and the other on SSE and Covid resilience.

 

2021 was therefore a year of significant progress. Despite the complicated situation created by the pandemic and some political aspects in Africa, RIPESS stepped up its activities, launched a new strategic plan, and hopes to continue with its focus on the strengthening of continental members.

 

By Juli Hernandez