How 25 years of solidarity resulted in the adoption of the UN Resolution A/RES/77/281

A summary of this paper was presented at a conference on “Inclusive Solidarities: Reimagining Boundaries in Divided Times” organized by Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), an international, inter-disciplinary organization with members in over 50 countries on five continents. The presentation was made at this SASE Conference held in Montréal on July 11, 2025, in the Network session on Labor Market Dynamics, Demographic Shifts, and Structures of International Development: new Perspectives.

Authors: Yvon Poirier¹ (Presenting author, RIPESS, Quebec, Canada) and Sandra Moreno (Non-presenting co-author, RIPESS, Granada, Spain)

Abstract/Description [1]

The present paper is based on a previous publication The adoption on 18 April 2023 of resolution A/RES/77/281, “The promotion of the social and solidarity economy for sustainable development” – The RIPESS contribution A detailed account”, which was published in December 2024, and is adapted to the current context. The hypothesis to explain the adoption of resolution A/RES/77/281 is that this came about because of the emergence of a global social and solidarity economy (SSE) ecosystem that has been in construction over the last quarter of a century. Gradually, since 1997, a movement has been built with at its core the concept of solidarity economy, inclusive of large sectors of the social economy (cooperatives, mutuals and non-profits) as an alternative to our corporate-led economy. The Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity (RIPESS), formally created in 2002, has been at the core of this movement building. A very important step was made with the creation in 2013 of the United Nations Inter-Agency Taskforce on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE). Together with SSE observers, including RIPESS since its foundation, the promotion of SSE for Sustainable Development became a priority. Even if it was not possible to have SSE included in the 2015-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the strategic involvement of SSE stayed the main priority for all the movement. Starting in 2016, the idea of a UN Resolution on SSE made its way. After RIPESS introduced the idea, the UNTFSSE adopted this as a priority in its action plan. After a few years of effort, a group of countries formally decided in April 2022 to bring an SSE resolution to the United Nations General Assembly.
For decades, and even centuries, people have been left behind by the dominant capitalist economy. Countless initiatives emerged all over the world, just to survive. This is still the basis for current solidarity-based efforts to respond to the needs of people at the grassroots.
Many political initiatives were also created in the last two centuries, including in the so-called “communist” countries. The takeover of states by a political party with the purpose of changing society in a top down, authoritarian manner, showed its strong limits, and even failures. In contrast, “social and solidarity economy” (SSE), also called “solidarity economy”, and in some places “social economy”, or “community development” movements, have built solidarity-based organisations from the grassroots up. They have been organising in larger networks in their respective countries, that then organise at the continental level. By the mid- to late 1990s, these grassroots-based organisations also decided that they needed a global network for the promotion of an alternative socio-economic approach. After two decades of effort, RIPESS has been able to create a full-scale intercontinental network. We proudly affirm that we are the only global SSE network. There are other international networks such as the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), however, cooperatives are only part of SSE. This paper argues that it is an underlying spirit of solidarity that facilitated the creation of an ecosystem of like-minded actors from UN agencies, governments and civil society that rendered possible a collective journey towards adoption of UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/71/281 on “Promoting the social and solidarity economy for sustainable development” of April 2023, and some multilateral and other advances for SSE since then.

Introducction

It is now 25th year of the XXI Century. The problems facing humanity are dire, as especially for the poorest and the perspective of uncontrolled global warming paints a bleak picture for the future.
However, there is nothing “natural” about what is happening. The problems are all “manmade” and can all be solved since solutions exist. Including for addressing climate change. Science clearly demonstrates that present economic human activity, organized around carbon-based production, is the cause. So, moving away from carbon-based energy is necessary, and is technically and organizationally possible.
If so possible, why does the world economy not move away from fossil fuels? Resistance and opposition from those that dominate economies worldwide – of course the multi-trillion fossil fuel industry, but more broadly the global corporate-led capitalist system’s driving force that puts profits before anything else – are the clear cause.
That same global system, in its current form called neoliberal capitalism, is also affecting all human activity. The transfer of wealth from most of the world’s population to the 1% is a well-known fact. The French economist Thomas Piketty in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, explains the mechanisms that inexorably produce such results, which are deepening inequalities between and within countries across the world.
This has led to strong resistance from large sectors of populations and is at the root of migration, whether legal or illegal. And many political problems, including civil wars, have the questions of poverty and exploitation among their causes.
Over the last couple of centuries, many have thought that grabbing state power through violent revolutions, such as the creation of the Soviet Union in 1917, would solve the problem. We now know that this did not happen. One of the reasons, from our point of view, is that changing societies in a top-down manner, where people are expected to obey, is a failure.
The current global system, based on overexploitation and a hegemonic paradigm of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, also undermines the productive and reproductive work of women and gender diversity, deepening the roots of inequalities and the care of beings and the planet. This increasingly pervasive corporate system is sustained by unequal power relations, with harmful consequences such as the loss of the commons, biodiversity, and the increasing exploitation of workers, including unpaid care work performed by women in informal and precarious working conditions. The sexual division of labor within a framework of patriarchal power relations has meant that women’s work has been largely invisible and considered less valuable, and instead of recognizing “reproduction” as essential to “production”, has reproduced discrimination, gender inequalities, and violence. Within this framework, privilege and oppression emerge as dynamics that arise from the intersections of power over class, gender, race or ethnicity, and other social identities.

A different approach: a people-centered, democratically managed, solidarity-based economy

Over the last decades, many people, in all parts of the world, have gradually realized that just resistance, or simply electing governments that promise to solve basic human problems, would not be enough to bring about fundamental changes.
This has led to a conscious alternative approach we could call: “Let’s organize and manage democratically our own economic activities”. This is somewhat like the historic cooperative approach, but in a more holistic manner, where all the community is involved. For some, this approach was not always a conscious alternative. Historically, people at the community level have had no other choice but to organize just to survive. In some way, the need for collective organization was the basis for how humanity has lived for hundreds of thousands of years. Humanity survived as a species because of cooperation and solidarity, and not because of individualism and unfettered competition – which is precisely what is endangering human survival today!

Building a global grassroots-based movement: the role of RIPESS

However valuable it has been that in many places people have been organizing in their own communities, often doing marvelous work, there came a point – especially since the advent of neoliberal globalization – where people gradually realized that even well-organized communities remain in very fragile situations. Moving 100 people out of poverty in a city while at the same time 200 people “fall” into poverty because a multinational corporation closes its local branch to meet the high profit demands of its shareholders is a lost cause. Consciousness has been growing that also working on the root causes of poverty and exclusion needs to be addressed.
In the mid- to late 1990s, this led many people, including academics, people in labor unions, feminist organizations, peasants and many others to gradually enter the process of building a global movement centered on a solidarity economy.
The first international event, with people from Latin America, Europe, Africa and North America, was held in Lima, Peru from July 1-4 in 1997. At the meeting, under the motto “Globalization of Solidarity”, the 350 participants affirmed solidarity economy as an alternative. Excerpt from the Declaration:

At the second Globalization of Solidarity meeting in Quebec City (Canada) in October 2001, the participants decided to consolidate the movement by organizing a 3rd meeting in Dakar, Senegal, in 2005. In a preparatory meeting in December 2002 in Dakar, the participants decided to formally create the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy – RIPESS (an acronym based on the French and Spanish names). Three key aspects need to be pointed out:

• Choosing intercontinental instead of international was a conscious decision. This implies that RIPESS is decentralized and is a bottom-up approach. Members organize at the local and national level in different countries, who then organize at the continental level.
• Realizing that acting at the continental level is not enough, there was an explicit need to organize globally, to promote the SSE globally, including in international institutions such as the United Nations and its specialized agencies, notably the International Labour Organization (ILO).
• Lastly, the third important distinction is in the expression “social solidarity economy”. The original proposal was to name the network “social and solidarity economy”. This expression was coined in France in the 1989-1990 period and signified bringing together social economy and solidarity economy movements, which were distinct in France (and in many ways still are). The representatives from Latin America proposed to remove “and”. This is not just a semantic or cosmetic change. The meaning for RIPESS is that the economy we want is social in the sense of social ownership (such as cooperatives) but also a strong solidarity component that implies building an economy for all people – echoing the motto in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to “Leave no one behind”, whereby the economy should put at the forefront the satisfaction of the basic human rights as recognized in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

Article 25

1-Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2-Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Today, climate change, even though this was already an established danger since at least the 1980s, is impacting all civilization as we know it. The consequences are even more dire than expected and it comes as no surprise that the poorest people in our world suffer the most from the current situation. Besides climate change, the natural resources of our planet are being consumed at an untenable rate. Already the Club of Rome in its 1972 document The Limits to Growth, the following expression identified the limits of the current economy by saying: we cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet.
The common understanding of “growth” – leading to today’s “growth” versus “degrowth” debates – can be understood as “extractivist growth” (which means “extractivist”, not only of natural resources, but also of the value of human labour, where formidable productivity improvements are captured by the owners of capital, not workers, whose real wages have remained stagnant or declining for decades). There are some economic processes that need to “grow” (or “sustainably develop”), like clean energy, agroecological food production, free/affordable care services, and indeed the income share of workers. Harmful economic practices meanwhile need to “degrow” until being totally phased out, such as fossil fuel extraction and use, deforestation and landgrabs for agro-industrial production and mineral extraction, and indeed the income share and astronomical wealth accumulation of the capitalist/”techno-feudal” rentier oligarchy!
These approaches and perspectives have historically skewed human relations and, consequently, economic models, giving rise to the current paradigm based on the exploitation of nature, the exercise of authority from a colonialist or neocolonialist perspective. We should therefore shift our gaze, focusing more on the effects that our economies have on nature and the planet and putting a limit on excessive growth. Nature is the seat of a vision based on a cosmogony associated with “Pacha Mama” or “Mother Earth” visions, where the earth (commons and natural goods) gives life to all living beings. The planetary boundaries that allow life are limited. Unfortunately, many of the boundaries have already been breached, and perhaps in ways that are dangerously close to being irreversible. The SSE as a systemic response, approached from a feminist perspective, will undoubtedly challenge all these power relations. The SSE is building economic models that are far removed from violence and militarism. As a project for social transformation, Social Solidarity Economy as we define it must go beyond questioning a form of production and distribution that is unsustainable from a socio-environmental point of view and aspire to change the way economic activities have been approached until now, considering the gender and feminist perspective in the SSE for a comprehensive transformation.
These are key to the global vision of the SSE movement.

From building the movement to promoting international recognition of SSE

After bringing together many grassroots organizations’ national networks, academia, social movements and others in continental networks, in all continents, an important paradigm change occurred in the wake of the 2008-2009 global financial and economic crisis. The political and economic leaders of the current economic system had earlier declared that after collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, “history was over”, in the sense that there was only one economic system, capitalism, and that prosperity would trickle down to all.
The global crisis was a shock, and unemployment grew by tens of millions. The all-powerful international financial institutions controlled by rich countries, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), did not see it coming. Like their counter-part finance ministries in wealthy nations, they refused to take heed of warnings coming from more democratically run UN institutions. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the ILO had been sounding the alarm about growing financial speculation and deregulation for more than a decade, starting even before pre-cursor crises erupted, like the East Asian crisis of 1997-98 that had “contagion” effects across much of the developing world, but had spared wealthy countries until the 2008-2009 global crisis hit: this time triggered from the US in 2007, the core of global financial capital, before spreading to the entire world.
SSE organizations and enterprises, which are not directly exposed to the whims of financial speculation, proved much more resilient to the crisis than the conventional private sector, and were even able to demonstrate their ability to create jobs, despite the harsh new economic reality. In this context, people in RIPESS leadership were invited to speak at ILO events in 2009 in Geneva and in Johannesburg. This led the ILO to organize yearly SSE academies from 2010 to 2022. This increased knowledge of SSE, including the sharing of many examples and best practices from different countries.
The following step was the creation of the UN Inter-Agency Taskforce on Social and Solidarity (UNTFSSE) on September 30, 2013 at a founding meeting convened by ILO, UNDP, UN-NGLS and UNRISD. This was the result of a first conference on SSE at the UN on 6-8 May 2013 , called “Potential and limits of Social and Solidarity Economy”. Organized by the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), in collaboration with the ILO and the UN Non-Governmental Service (UN-NGLS), , with the participation of a wide range of SSE actors and researchers, including from RIPESS, different UN agencies at the conference considered opportune to move towards the creation the UNTFSSE in order to advocate for the promotion of SSE in the UN system and beyond.
The UNTFSSE invited several SSE organizations to participate as Observers in its meetings, with three organizations taking up this role in the early years: the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the Mont-Blanc Meetings association (which became the SSE International Forum in 2016), and RIPESS. The inclusion of the ICA reflected its long-recognized status within the ILO and the historic role of cooperatives in the promotion of social and solidarity economy practices, a commitment it explicitly reinforced in 2017. Similarly, SSE International Forum has contributed to fostering international exchange and dialogue on SSE, albeit with a more limited organizational base. RIPESS, by contrast, represents a unique intercontinental network that has developed over more than a quarter of a century, bringing together diverse grassroots initiatives from across the globe (see map below). This distinctive reach and representativeness positioned RIPESS to play a proactive role in strengthening the UNTFSSE’s work, notably by contributing in 2014 to the production of its first position paper linking SSE with the framework of the future Sustainable Development Goals.

At the UN Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in June 2012, RIPESS had listed the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals for the 2015-2030 period as a priority for future work. The first action was the publication in July 2014 of proposals for the SDGs initiated by RIPESS and endorsed by over 500 civil society organizations. This publication was published at the occasion of a speech by RIPESS at the UN in July 2014 during preparatory events at the UN in New York. However, despite the efforts of many, Agenda 2030 has no explicit mention of SSE (although it does refer to cooperatives when acknowledging the “diverse private sector”). We also attempted, alongside global civil society movements, to have SSE included in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda that was adopted at the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) of July 2015. Even though SSE had been increasing in visibility, we had to recognize that it was still a relatively unknown approach. We were quite dubitative that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of Agenda 2030 would succeed, with a business-as-usual approach. Unfortunately, we were right! The UN has since repeatedly warned that “business-as-usual” is “not an option”, as it has been documenting the lack of progress and even regressions in the realization of the SDGs.
Despite these setbacks, we did not relent in our efforts to promote SSE as an alternative approach to “leave no one behind”, as the United Nations inserted in the Preamble of Agenda 2030. For example, RIPESS, alongside other SSE organizations, promoted the inclusion of SSE in the New Urban Agenda adopted at the Habitat III meeting in Quito in October 2016. This was successful. Similarly, the global United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) organization adopted a working paper on local development which recognizes the importance of SSE at its 2016 Congress in Bogota. During the 2013-2016 period, a significant number of countries adopted policies and legislations on SSE, which helped increase knowledge and awareness of SSE.

A UN resolution on SSE-First steps – 2016 to 2019

In September 2016, one of the co-authors of the current document, Yvon Poirier, was at a conference in Montréal. A friend from France came to see Yvon and a colleague and provided an important suggestion: “Yesterday, at the occasion of a meeting at the UN, a top-level staff at ECOSOC told me that the moment would be ripe to propose a UN resolution on SSE”.
After examining the situation, the recent progress, the UNTFSSE work, the idea seemed plausible. To get things moving, RIPESS shared the idea with key people at the UNTFSSE, including the Chair. In early 2017, UNCTAD representatives proposed adding the idea of a UN resolution to the agenda of the next UNTFSSE meeting. For different reasons, the item was delayed to a future meeting. During this period, the SSE movement continued to make progress, including legislation in other countries. Already in 2017, at the annual High Level Political Forum (HLPF) held at the UN, it was quite clear that progress towards achieving the SDGs was not only slow, but there were warning signs that were pessimistic.
At the UNTFSSE meeting held February 20, 2018, the proposal to engage towards a UN Resolution on SSE was approved. Two UNCTAD representatives and Yvon had prepared a brief concept note on Why a UN Resolution. At that meeting, we were requested to move ahead, in preparing the first draft of a future resolution for further consideration.

A UN resolution on SSE-last steps – 2020 to April 18, 2023

The presenting author, Yvon Poirier, published a detailed account of the long and intense work that culminated in 18 April 2023 with the adoption by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) of resolution A/RES/77/281 on “Promoting the social and solidarity economy for sustainable development”.
Solidarity was at the core. Main aspects:

• All the actors directly involved were motivated by the fact that the world was going backwards in achieving Agenda 2030. In the preamble of that Agenda, as already mentioned, the countries of the world asserted we pledge that no one will be left behind. The fact that this was an evident failure, that more are more people were worse off, that poverty and exclusion were depriving people of essential basic human rights was a strong motivation for all people involved. Solidarity with the people left behind is essential for a better future for humanity.
• Solidarity between organizations and governments involved was a key factor. A common vision had grown within the UNTFSSE and its work. Different countries gradually endorsed this approach and agreed in a meeting in Paris in April 2021 to go to the UN General Assembly with a resolution recognizing SSE. (Only UN Member States can bring resolutions to the floor of the UNGA.)
• Solidarity between workers organizations, governments, SSE organizations and a strong leadership role of the ILO secretariat was an essential dimension towards the adoption of the resolution on decent work and SSE by the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2022. This text contained a first universal definition of SSE, notably the principles of democratic/participatory governance and “the primacy of people and social purpose over capital in the distribution and use of surpluses and/or profits”. This breakthrough at the ILO was a major stepping stone on the road to advancing political support for a broader UNGA resolution on SSE, which endorsed the ILC universal definition of SSE. As the only tripartite UN organisation with Governments, Employers and Workers, previous activities fed into the process that led to the adoption of the 2022 resolution. The ILO is the only UN body that has adopted an organization-wide strategy and action plan on decent work and the SSE in November 2022.
• Solidarity between representatives of organizations and states was also important. The individuals involved in doing the work, drafting different versions of the resolution, papers explaining the rationale of such a resolution, was an intense teamwork among people who understood why they were doing this work.
• Explaining the reasons for such a resolution, working with states and other stakeholders was important. And as always, personal relations were important. This explains in part why on the day the resolution was adopted, just before the President used his gravel to say “Adopted”, 43 countries had formally endorsed the resolution.

We can conclude that this was possible because over the years, a global multistakeholder SSE ecosystem was formed, with people dedicated to the future of humankind, within a spirit of solidarity with present and future generations – in sharp contrast to the collectively self-destructive obsession of a few with getting rich and richer! We are proud of the role we played in building this ecosystem.

Next steps – from 2023 and onwards

The adoption of A/RES/77/281 was a step. How important this step will be proven to be depends on what is collectively done next. A UN Resolution that is not implemented is just words on paper, like it is with so many UN resolutions and declarations. Follow-up work has gotten underway, step by step. A few more countries adopted SSE legislation since then.
The 2023 resolution gave the following mandate to the UNTFSSE:
Requests the Secretary-General to prepare a report, within existing resources, in collaboration with the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy, on the implementation of the present resolution, taking into consideration the contribution of the social and solidarity economy to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and an inclusive, job-rich, resilient and sustainable recovery, and decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-ninth session, under the item entitled “Sustainable development”, a sub-item entitled “Promoting the social and solidarity economy for sustainable development”.

The UNTFSSE did prepare a report for the Secretary General and this led UN countries to adopt a second resolution, A/RES/79/213 adopted in December 2024. The resolution reiterates the SSE approach and more specific proposals for implementing the initial SSE resolution, such as the operational paragraph requesting that international financial institutions, including multilateral development banks, provide funding for SSE entities. This latest resolution requested that Member States examine how SSE could be included in the results of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) that was to be held in Sevilla, Spain, from June 30 to July 3, 2025. In large part because of RIPESS engagement, in partnership with a core group of countries, the UNTFSSE and other civil society organizations, SSE was included in two paragraphs of final FfD4 outcome document, the Compromiso de Sevilla, or Commitment of Sevilla. The new global Financing for Development Agenda now includes a commitment to facilitate the growth of SSE and its support by local, national and international financial institutions.
Also on February 15th, 2025, the Head of State of the African Union adopted The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) in the African Union – Ten-year SSE Strategy and Implementation Plan (2023-2033). The African Social and Solidarity Economy Network-RAÉSS, the RIPESS African continental member, is acknowledged in the document adopted for the strategy. This recognition is in part de result of the promotion of SSE in Africa by RIPESS an RAÉSS, for over two decades.

In addition, RIPESS’s active participation in the ILC 2023 succeeded in including the contribution of SSE in the ILO’s Just Transition agenda, and it succeeded in placing the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) on the ILO’s agenda on the Care Economy. At FfD4, SSE was not only included in the commitments of the official intergovernmental outcome as already mentioned, but also in the Feminist Forum declaration and Declaration from the FfD4 Civil Society Forum.

To conclude

Without any doubt, the focus of our work in the last 25 years, based on solidarity, has helped us make substantial progress, not for us, but for a human based economy with fundamental human rights at its core. We were instrumental in the adoption of UN Resolution A/RES/77/281 and the inclusion SSE in the FfD4 outcome. We do not think that either would have succeeded without our direct involvement.
Together, the ILC resolution and the two UNGA resolutions provide a coherent multilateral framework for decent work and sustainable development through the SSE, with the ILO and the UNTFSSE supporting implementation at global, regional and national levels.
We are only at the beginning of world-wide process to build an economy by and for people and not for capital. We are continuing the work started a couple of centuries ago. We are moving to a new stage in history. Our current economy is now globalized, as if it was a single market, dominated by capital. This is why we need to globalize solidarity. After all, there is only one humanity and one planet!

Last thoughts.

We are also inspired by a different vision, based on traditional knowledge.
In the Americas, indigenous peoples use the expression Mother Earth. The world does not belong to us as something we can exploit with no end. We must consider that we belong to the Earth and not the opposite. This has led to the expression used by many people in India called trusteeship. This implies that living generations are entrusted to keep care of the planet and even improve it for future generations. In the same sense, aboriginal peoples in Canada say that when we examine a development project, we must use the notion of thinking of the seven future generations. Will the community be better seven generations from now?
Sarvodaya is another well-known expression in Asia. In short, this means that if we improve the lives of the poorest and disadvantaged, the whole of society will be improved.
A quote attributed to Gandhi:
The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not enough for everyone’s greed.
And a quote from Indra Rubio – Simone de Beauvoir Institute
We have to decide whether we want to rebuild an economic model that prioritizes profit and accumulation in the hands of a few, or a solidarity-based economy that prioritizes life, mutual care, and the preservation of common goods, as feminist movements have long demanded.

The co-authors

Yvon Poirier
Yvon Poirier has been involved full time as volunteer (living on a public sector pension) since 2004 in the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy (RIPESS). Various tasks and functions were performed during these years. He has participated in RIPESS global meetings, Dakar in 2005, Luxemburg in 2019 and Manila in 2013. He participated in meetings in Asia, Manila in 2007, Tokyo in 2009, Kuala Lumpur i2011 and Indonesia in 2011. He has participated in different World Social Forums, 2005 and 2009 in Brazil, Tunisia in 2013 and 2015 and 2016 in Canada. He was a member of the Board of Directors from 2012 to 2025 of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET) and was the representative to RIPESS. Since 2014, he is a RIPESS representative in the United Nations Inter-Agency Taskforce on the Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE). He has participated in all meetings and symposiums since then. The involvement in the Taskforce led him to be part of the team that was able to have the UN General Assembly adopt on April 18, 2023, resolution A/RES/77/281 Promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development. He studied Political Science and was a college teacher and trade union activist from 1968 to 1997.

Sandra Moreno
Sandra Moreno Cadena is the Executive Secretary of RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy). She has training in Biodynamic Agriculture in Spain, a Diploma on Development Studies in Geneva and Architecture and Urbanism in Bogota. She is also a visiting scholar with the International Law Associates Program in Indonesia. From 2013 to 2017, she represented La Via Campesina at UN negotiations on the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other Rural Workers. Sandra is a recognized speaker on rural women’s rights and food sovereignty, with several published articles. Since 2023, she has led RIPESS, focusing on Social Solidarity Economy for economic, gender and climate justice. She has been involved in advancing and defending the human rights of peasant and rural communities with significant experience in research, capacity building, community organization and political advocacy.

The co-authors wish to acknowledge the contribution of Hamish Jenkins in reviewing and improving the content of this document.

[1] This abstract was originally the proposal for our presentation. Once selected, it was published in the conference program. Since this was made public, no changes have been made except for minor corrections