PRE-ASEAN SUMMIT ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON SOCIAL SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

Venue: Conference Room, GMM 15th Floor, Menara Manulife, No. 6, Jalan Gelenggang, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Participants: About 50 people from ASEAN member countries including resource persons from ASEC

Organisers: Asian Solidarity Economy Council (ASEC) & Global Movement of Moderates (GMM).

Co-organizers: ASEAN Foundation, the ASEAN Secretariat, Emerging & Special Partnerships Unit / International Labour Organization (ILO), Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI), Bina Swadaya Foundation, Sinergi Indonesia, & Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

See the concept note and program in pdf

Objectives

• To promote the concept of solidarity economy, social business, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as a vehicle for community empowerment and in addressing poverty and inequality in Asean member states

• To draw policy implications in identifying the place of social solidarity economy in the action plan for Sustainable Development Goals as a post MDG iniciative

• To discuss the possibilities of charting a cooperation road map among Asean member countries, civil society, academic institutions and private sector (see proposal below).

PROPOSAL FOR ASEAN SOUTH-SOUTH & TRIANGULAR COOPERATION (SSTC) IN DEVELOPING VALUE CHAINS OF SOLIDARITY-BASED COMMUNITY ENTERPRISES (the outcome document shall be submitted to the ASEAN Secretariat and the ILO for funding support).

The proposed ASEAN SSTC project shall be an iterative, goal-oriented learning programme with five components described below. The target project beneficiaries are leaders and officers of solidarity-based community enterprises form CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam). Experts will come from Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia.

Participatory documentation workshops.{{}}

There is a need to document emerging practical knowledge and experiences of South-south and triangular cooperation of value chains of solidarity-based community enterprises that could be scaled up. The proposed program could introduce a more systematic method of documentation of good practices that would:

(i) identify and describe the ASRAN cooperation elements, as established by ILO;

(ii) look at both the technology or approach that was implemented (e.g. system of rice intensification of CEDAC in Cambodia, community-supported agriculture, value chain financing of small industries in the Philippines, etc.);

(iii) clarify the way in which these approaches and technologies have been shared across borders and within each country; and

(iv) translate the documentation outputs into separate articles/manuals.

Peer-to-peer learning (Share stories).

The materials produced in programme component 1 can then be used in peer-to-peer learning within the country. They could be used in various roundtable discussions, meetings, conferences, and workshops in the country to share stories of good practices in social and solidarity economy.

ASEAN Learning (exchange visits, to see is believing).

Parallel with the ASEAN initiative of evolving economic communities or growth areas (e.g. IMT-GT, BiMP-EAGA, and CLMV – Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam) as a means for regional integration, the proposed program could promote social and solidarity economy as a component of ASEAN’s people-oriented regional integration and people-to-people connectivity.

Experts from within these economic communities can be tapped to assist in project design of ASEAN cooperation programs for the development of social and solidarity economy, and/or for setting up learning and sharing opportunities in the region. In this context resource persons from Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia could provide support to CLMV Countries.

In the context of south-south learning, the proposed program may incorporate the planned Global Social and Solidarity Finance Summit in 2016 and which could be conducted in conjunction with the ILO Social & Solidarity Economy Academy in 2016. Asian Development Bank has expressed interest in hosting the Global Social and Solidarity Finance Summit 2016 and the UN Task Force on Social & Solidarity Economy has committed to calendar it among its activities.

Adaptation and replication of good practices.

The proposed program shall provide means for testing and refining good practices that could be adapted and replicated in other countries. Adaptability and replicability of locally generated technology in other contexts and environment contribute significantly to the sustainability of the good practice and the social and solidarity economy in general.

The proposed program could incorporate the suggestion of Sahakian and Dunand (2013) for an exchange programme where the solidarity economy movement in the Philippines and in ASEAN in general could learn and use the guiding principles of the Social and Solidarity Economy Chamber in Geneva, while the social and solidarity economy movement in Geneva could learn and use the conceptual approach of the Philippines.

In both Geneva and the Philippines greater solidarity is needed across supply chains and actors, between social and solidarity economy and the sustainable consumption and production (SCP) networks, and between regions in a highly unequal world. The social and solidarity economy movement can benefit from a systems approach embraced by the SCP community.

In turn, SCP can benefit from a concept of social and solidarity economy that places people and planet first. Social and solidarity economy and SCP communities could benefit from interdisciplinary thinking which is not always promoted in formal educational systems. The different social forums and social and solidarity economy networks are certainly paving a way for more collaboration across regions, yet a link remains to be made with environmental forums and SCP networks.

Institutional capacity building

Institutional capacity building of partner organizations involved in co-generating the good practice is crucial in perfecting the technology or approach (good practice). In addition, the partner organizations should be equipped and become proficient themselves in the iterative, goal-oriented learning approach of the program. This will ensure the sustainability of the program, which in turn is essential for attracting internally generated support for the program and for mainstreaming it into the larger ASEAN regional integration initiatives.

APRIL 25, 2015 PROGRAM (PROVISIONAL)

08.00-09.00 Registration/Coffee
09.00-09.30 Opening Session
Welcome remarks by Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, CEO of GMM

Brief Speech by Ms Elaine Tan (ASEAN Foundation)
Address by the Chairman of ASEAN CPR, Dato Hasnudin Hamzah

09.30-11.00 Panel: Solidarity-based Community Enterprises for ASEAN: Opportunities, possibilities & challenges
 Dr Benjamin Quinones, Jr. (ASEC Chair)
 Pak Bambang Ismawan (ASEC Indonesia)
 ILO Representative (Mr. Roberto di Meglio or Jurgen Schwettmann)
Panel Moderator: Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria (ASEC Deputy Chair)

11.00-12.00 Open forum
12.00 Group photo
12.00-13.00 Lunch

13.00-14.30 Case Study presentations by:
 1) Mr. Rolly Victoria, Alalay Sa Kaunlaran Inc. (ASKI) Philippines (Mainstreaming financial inclusion thru scale up of microfinance);
 2) Mr. Shigeru Tanaka, Deputy Secretary General, PARC, Japan (Inter-people cooperation in building solidarity in conflict-affected territories);
 3) Dr Jun E Tan, ISIS, Malaysia (Community Economy in Malaysia addressing poverty and low income (Social entrepreneurship, Social enterprise, solidarity economy )

14.30-15.00 Open forum

15.00-15.15 Coffee/tea break

15.15-16.00 Proposal for ASEAN Community cooperation for the development of value chains of solidarity-based community enterprises, as a South-south & triangular cooperation of ASEC, ASEAN, GMM, and ILO in line with the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. (Included in the proposal is the ILO SSE Academy 2016 in Asia and the International Conference on Social & Solidarity Finance 2016 also in Asia)

Panel & Discussion.

16.00-17.00 Discussion/adoption of the proposal

17.00-17.30 Closing session: Setting the agenda for 2015 and beyond for SSE in ASEAN

Launch of ASEAN Solidarity Economy Council