Bogotá, July 30 – August 1, 2026

Colombia is experiencing a decisive moment for the Economies for Life. Across the country, hundreds of community‑based, popular, solidarity‑driven and cooperative processes are strengthening new forms of production, exchange and care that place life at the center. This organizational momentum — spanning food sovereignty, fair trade, cooperativism, mutualism, handicrafts, community tourism, agro‑industry, community services, popular credit, cooperative banking, care economies, and the defense of territories, nature and the planet — has become an unprecedented social force.

With the support of the Government of Change, more than 60 associative integration processes have emerged around economic and solidarity circuits, territorial networks and community articulations that promote the social, solidarity, popular and community economy. However, this effort now requires a further step: weaving ties among the different processes, building a shared national agenda, and engaging with international advances in associativity and the promotion of the SSE.

For this reason, the Government of Colombia, together with the Ibero‑American Network for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy, RIFESS, RIPESS, and the main platforms of the social, solidarity, popular, community, peasant and family economy, convene this national meeting with the purpose of laying the foundations of the National Alliance of Economies for Life.

Objectives of the meeting

  • Promote the National Alliance of Economies for Life and build a common agenda by articulating integration organizations from different territories that promote the solidarity, popular, community, peasant and family economy.
  • Define the organizational coordination of the Alliance, establishing pathways for functioning, integration and participation for care‑economy organizations, youth, peasant communities, ethnic peoples, networks of caregivers, people with disabilities and territorial integration platforms.
  • Promote the exchange of knowledge and associative, educational, communicational and cultural experiences that strengthen the communication strategy and the education plan of the National Alliance of Economies for Life.

RIPESS participation

RIPESS joins this meeting to contribute its international experience in network articulation, global advocacy, and strengthening public policies that promote the social and solidarity economy. Our participation aims to support the construction of a robust, plural national alliance capable of engaging with global processes advancing toward a new life‑centered economic order.

Meeting agenda

👉 Download the working agenda here.