RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy), together with its allies WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing), WSM (We Social Movements), INSP!R (International Network for Social Protection Rights) and ANMC (Alliance Nationale des Mutualités Chrétiennes) will be present in Bordeaux from October 24 to November 1 with a packed agenda of strategic meetings and inspiring initiatives. We are united by a shared conviction: the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is a strategic path to achieve social justice, decent work, universal social protection, and sustainability of life.
Joint Manifiesto
For a Social and Solidarity Economy that guarantees Decent Work, Social Protection and Care for All
In the framework of the Global Social and Solidarity Economy Forum (GSEF) 2025, the networks WSM, ANMC, INSP!R, RIPESS and WIEGO launch a joint manifesto reaffirming their commitment to a just transition towards resilient territories and the well-being of all people.
The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) stands as a structural alternative to the dominant economic model, capable of ensuring decent work, universal social protection, and sustainable care systems. In the face of precariousness and informality affecting more than half of the global workforce, SSE offers collective, democratic, and people-centered solutions.
The manifesto is structured around three transformative pillars:
- From informal to decent work, through collective organization and access to labor rights.
2. Universal and solidarity-based social protection, with SSE-adapted models that complement or replace state action.
3. Care and sustainability of life, recognizing care as a right and public good, and promoting community-based models with gender equity.
The signatory organizations call on governments, institutions, and civil society to strengthen SSE as a pillar of inclusive development through comprehensive public policies, enabling legal frameworks, responsible public procurement, and effective participation of SSE entities in social and labor governance.
SSE is not a marginal sector: it is the foundation of a new economy centered on people, justice, and the sustainability of life.
Agenda
On this occasion, RIPESS will hold the Gender Commission Assembly, the Board of Directors Assembly, strategic workshops with its allies WSM, WIEGO, ANMC, INSP!R, youth forum workshops, and self-organized roundtables and panels at GSEF.
RIPESS is part of GSEF’s DNA
From Seoul in 2013 to the latest edition in Dakar 2023, RIPESS has actively participated in GSEF, being part of its steering committee since 2016. As an intercontinental network, our goal is to continue strengthening this space and ensure that the principles of the Social and Solidarity Economy remain the pillars of GSEF’s future development.
On this occasion, RIPESS is bringing a delegation of more than 20 representatives from organisations from all regions, in addition to its board of directors and members of the gender commission, to participate in events both inside and outside the Forum.
As an intercontinental network, our goal is to continue strengthening this space and ensure that the principles of the Social Solidarity Economy are the pillars of the future development of the GSEF.
About the GSEF 2025
The Global Social and Solidarity Economy Forum 2025 (GSEF), to be held from 29 to 31 October 2025 in Bordeaux (France), is a milestone on the road to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Five years into the 2030 Agenda, it will bring together civil society and territories to drive the movement forward, challenge policy makers and accelerate the just transition. This event is also part of an intense and decisive global sequence, just a few days before the World Social Forum in Doha (4-6 November 2025), which will bring together heads of state and government to accelerate the implementation of a new global social contract on poverty reduction.
