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

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 Economy (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.