Close to 700 delegates from 26 countries, two-thirds comprising women, attended the Asian Forum for Solidarity Economy at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, Philippines on 17-20 October 2007. The Asian Forum was organized by the Coalition of Socially Responsible SMEs in Asia (CSR SME Asia) with the support of the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind (FPH) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The first of its kind in Asia, the Asian Forum for Solidarity Economy was an unprecedented event where various stakeholders met to articulate a uniquely Asian solidarity economy as a people- and eco-centered way of governance over the production, financing, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The Asian Forum came at a time when interest is growing for alternatives to the current global economic system that has only deepened the wedge between the haves and the have-nots, and further alienated those who are already marginalized.

"In the everyday transactions of a market-oriented economy", said Asian Forum Chairperson Dr. Cielito Habito, “there are bound to be winners and losers; win-win outcomes are not the rule, but the exception." Solidarity economy advocates believe that such outcome need not be inevitable. “Along with our basic instinct for pursuing self interest", Dr. Habito said, “human beings also possess an instinct for altruism, that is, for caring and sharing. This same instinct leads us to value the common good and moves us to certain behaviors that may not necessarily promote our own best self-interest all the time. This instinct comes into play, for example, when a banker or financier chooses to extend credit to smaller, struggling enterprises when dealing with fewer but larger borrowers would appear to be more profitable. Or an investor deliberately chooses to put funds into a socially responsible enterprise over another that is clearly more lucrative but with possibly adverse social or environmental impacts."

The Asian Forum hosted the launching of the Alliance for a Plural, Responsible and Solidarity-based Economy (ALOE). It showcased, through exhibits and presentations, real-world models of socially responsible finance, socially responsible investments and socially responsible enterprises. In so doing, the Asian Forum demonstrated that a more caring economy is indeed possible, while sowing the seeds of a movement that would propagate the ideal of an economy that exemplifies the Filipino concept of bayanihan, which aptly captures the very concept of solidarity economy.

The Asian Forum Stakeholders Assembly unanimously accepted the offer of Japan to host Asian Forum 2009, and the offer of India to host Asian Forum 2011. “We need to find ways and means to consolidate the process and begin to work towards Asian Forum for Solidarity Economy as an ongoing semi-formal - open network of practitioners, researchers and institutional actors" said John Samuel, Co-Chair of the Asian Forum. Some suggestions on other concrete steps that need to be taken towards Asian Forum 2009 were the following:

• Continue and sustain the Learning Journey in the respective countries, and in the process, establish and agree on core principles for socially responsible finance, investment and enterprise on a country basis, inasmuch as certain differing circumstances among countries may require slight differences in these core principles.
  
• Work towards achieving a set of working principles common to Asia as a whole, even as stakeholders seek core principles for their respective countries.
  
• Produce country papers – one per country – to share experiences on what solidarity economy means in each sector of the country
  
• Engage professionals (economists, social scientists) to write an authoritative book on solidarity economy to serve both as intellectual guide and inspiration for propagating the concept of solidarity economy.