Pioneers of the Social & Solidarity Economy

In this podcast, Affiliate Post Growth Fellow, Djémilah Hassani, speaks to Social & Solidarity Economy leaders from French overseas territories — from the Indian Ocean to South America — to explore how these small nations are making an outsize contribution to the development of an an “economy of dignity”, leveraging collaborations, innovations, and existing cultural practices to pioneer pathways towards economic reconciliation.

The podcast takes place in French, with an English modified transcript below.

Djémilah Hassani: Hello everyone! Welcome to this podcast, co-produced with the Post Growth Institute (PGI), a collective of researchers, social entrepreneurs, and many others who create knowledge and content to imagine the economy of tomorrow to take into account both people and the planet. The PGI, in other words, is about building a better future for the next generations.

I’m Djemilah, Post Growth Fellow and co-delegate for Europe and International at ESS France Outre-mer. I must say that we have found in the PGI a brilliant, dynamic, and innovative collective in the way we conceive the economy of tomorrow. I’m eternally grateful to have met the team, which is scattered between Oregon, England, South Africa and Kenya. I’m giving them all a big hug today.

Wherever you’re listening from — perhaps sipping matcha tea in Oregon, imagining your next coffee in Paris, waiting for your boda boda in Nairobi, or even thinking about your weekend voulé in Mayotte — today we bring you the latest news on the global Social & Solidarity Economy from our guests: Ben Zeghadi, France National Delegate for the Social Economy Overseas; Kamal Youssouf, Director of the Regional Chamber of the Social and Solidarity Economy (CRESS) Mayotte; Frédéric Auré, Director of CRESS La Réunion; and Elodie Eugénie, Director of CRESS French Guiana. With this fine group from the French overseas territories, we’ll be discussing the future of the Social & Solidarity Economy as a space for economic reconciliation and support for an economy of dignity.

Ben Zeghadi [recording from the UN General Assembly (Dakar, Senegal, April 2023) adopting the resolution “Promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development”]:

This is a historic moment, because it’s the first time a gathering of this kind, with this scope and power, has taken place in Africa. What does that mean? First of all, it means that there’s a real groundswell going on around the world. And it’s manifesting itself here in Dakar, saying something to the whole world. The Social & Solidarity Economy (SSE) is becoming the norm for tomorrow’s economy. And we’re talking about it today. We’re talking about it because, in the context of the global ecological transition, the end of resources, or at least the limits of resources to create the conditions for conventional economic growth: that’s it, it’s over. We need to move towards a more democratic way of imagining the creation of economic value, one that puts social and environmental benefits ahead of economic performance. And finally, there’s a limit to profit, which means that we don’t need to buy 14 Ferraris to show that we’re creating positive value.

Djémilah: The SSE is becoming tomorrow’s standard. We don’t need to buy 14 Ferraris to show we’re creating positive value! As France’s National Delegate for Overseas Territories, Ben, what would you say is the place of the overseas Social & Solidarity Economy is in this wider global momentum, and what it can contribute in a world that is often referred to as being in “permacrisis”?

Ben: I’d first like to thank all the participants who are here, and in particular our friends from Oregon. On April 18, 2023, during a historic moment at the UN, shared by the whole concert of nations, a resolution was adopted which says that the Social & Solidarity Economy is the main, indeed the only, lever for achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The first 16 SDGs concern human activity and its future in all its modalities, and 17th concerns how we can achieve them.

SSE advocates at the UN in Daka, April 2023.

This UN resolution shows that the SSE is gaining significant momentum, with the ILO (International Labour Organization) resolution and that of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and the European plan — for we are European citizens. But this moment is also vertiginous, because it enables us to understand the history of our predecessors in contributing to the adoption of this UN resolution, whose determination I would like to credit here. You and I, Djemilah, were both front-row spectators at the UN that day, and what I remember is that people like Hugues Sibille and other voices from Europe, worked for so many years to make it happen. It’s also breathtaking because we know what needs to be done in a rather constrained time frame, in the face of the disease from which our planet is suffering. So we’re going to work together — or else, to a certain extent, we will perish alone. That’s why we’re trying to create the first collective within our organization of French overseas territories: the France of the Seas or, rather, the Europe of the Oceans. French overseas territories are the world’s second-largest seaboard. It’s important to remember that we can build at least two things from this region. Firstly, new dynamics to make this new economic norm — the Social & Solidarity Economy — a reality, but also a new form of territorial and economic diplomacy, because we need to make a number of transitions.

As I said in Dakar, the transitions required are multidimensional. We are not only a major seaboard, but also home to 85 percent of Europe’s biodiversity. What is the SSE in overseas France? It’s almost 1.5 billion euros in gross payroll injected into the economy every year, and it’s almost 56,000 jobs. We’re spread over three ocean basins: the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific. And our ambition is to be part of an accelerated movement that will enable us to connect and make our overseas territories hubs of economic reconciliation; to materialize the 16 SDGs and make the 17th a reality. This is important because this seaboard is mostly made up of island bracelets (except for French Guiana, who we’ll hear from today) that can ultimately be modern, experimental ports enabling dignity to be restored through the economy and ensuring that people are no longer in the service of economies, but the other way around.

Djémilah: Thank you very much Ben for this insight. I know that ESS France Outre-mer is working in concert with CRESS to achieve this vision and ambition. I’d like to turn now to the CRESS chapters, starting with Mayotte and Reunion. ESS France Outre-mer is the national network leader, but you are also the keystone in the deployment of the SSE in French overseas territories. So, my question for Kamal and Frédéric first of all: how do you plan to bring this global momentum to life locally, perhaps through strategic cooperations? Do you have any projects underway? Kamal, we know that Mayotte is very active in this area. How do you and CRESS La Réunion plan to bring this SSE to life in the Indian Ocean?

Kamal Youssouf: You mentioned the figures for the SSE overseas and in the Indian Ocean zone. There is, in fact, a strong dynamic in the Social & Solidarity economy here [in Mayotte]: It alone accounts for 50 percent of the SSE in overseas territories. Our two territories, Réunion and Mayotte, share a common environment and similar challenges. Our regions are both confronted with climatic, environmental, and food issues. Since the founding of our CRESS chapters it’s been important to us that we can pool our capacities and tools in order to respond to all these challenges. At CRESS Mayotte, we didn’t wait for the UN resolution to take action in terms of starting corporations. Within our chambers in Overseas France, we benefit from a legal framework (a law from 2014) which gives us the possibility to imagine business opportunities and create synergies between our territories. In conjunction with ESS France Outre-mer, we have been experimenting with a tool called BusinESS OI, which aims to strengthen the sharing of best practices in the Social & Solidarity Economy in the Indian Ocean zone.

The French SSE delegation at the UN.

As Ben said, we need to share engineering and common tools. But the countries that surround our territory don’t have a framework linked to the Social & Solidarity Economy. So the first action was to identify and analyze the regulatory framework within our basin, with five international territories, so that we could lay the foundations for cooperation, then develop a strong SSE network through the promotion of best practices and opportunities. This project, financed by the Mayotte Departmental Council and the European Union as part of the Interreg V operational plan, brought together almost 2,000 participants in around 50 events. It’s been a success, and has shown just how dynamic the region is.

Frédéric Auré: To add to what Ben and Kamal have said, it’s true that the SSE in the French overseas territories remains strong, particularly in the Indian Ocean. On Reunion Island, we account for 43 percent of SSE employer establishments in the overseas region. In terms of examples of cooperation, in recent years we’ve seen an increase in synergies between territories, companies, and associations in Reunion’s Social & Solidarity Economy, particularly in terms of the development of actions linked to sport, youth, education, and social action. For example, in recent years we’ve had the Indian Ocean Youth and Sports Commission’s Youth Games, which was held in Mauritius and organized in collaboration with SSE structures — in particular network leaders such as the Crajep (Comité Régional des Associations de Jeunesse et d’Education Populaire). We also have areas of economic cooperation that are more economic in nature and have high added value. These include the supply of raw materials or components for products or supplies that are subsequently processed or re-used, for example in textile production and re-use, or in the fashion industry.

In many establishments today, we are seeing an increase in ethical or fair trade activities or initiatives, particularly in Madagascar, on all products linked to clothing and fashion. For over a decade, we’ve also been seeing partnerships with countries in the region for the marketing of construction and landscaping timber, which is also resold in La Réunion, or reworked in line with the principles of fair trade and cooperation. This is another area in which we have been able to work with partners such as the Université de la Réunion to develop a research and training component. A Bachelor’s degree has been developed in Mauritius in conjunction with the Université de la Réunion, which has also collaborated with Mayotte on the subject. La Réunion and neighboring countries are also collaborating via the research and forward-looking initiatives of various agri-food institutes. Our CRESS chapters — particularly those in Mayotte and Reunion — also collaborate on socially and environmentally responsible purchasing, because we realize that it’s a major challenge to relocalize employment, give greater access to public procurement, and use it as a lever for the economic development of our organizations in our territories, by training and supporting our businesses.

Djémilah: Thank you very much Frédéric and Kamal, we can feel the ferment, the bubbling, that’s going on in the Indian Ocean to ensure that the SSE develops on a local level — either to protect know-how that’s already available, or to create regional value chains. This is the case for Mayotte, for example, in sectors that are already well identified, but also to improve overall relations in the Indian Ocean.

We’ll now turn to Elodie, on the other side of the ocean. Elodie is the Director of CRESS French Guiana, an ultramarine territory that’s a little atypical in the sense that it’s not on an island like Mayotte or La Réunion, but attached to South America, which is a key area for the SSE. So, how do you see these Indian Ocean dynamics that Kamal, Frédéric, and Ben have spoken about? How do you see the CRESS chapter you’re piloting developing the local SSE with a global resonance?

Elodie Eugénie: Thank you for your question and for the invitation to this podcast. Well, we’re also gradually echoing such co-operations, but perhaps with a little less progress than in the Indian Ocean. But the will is there and initiatives are really starting to emerge. As you so rightly said, we’re not an island territory, but we’re still a small part of France, a small part of Europe in South America. French Guiana is ultimately a European crossroads between the Amazon and the Caribbean, and today the territory’s multicultural nature and configuration make it fertile ground for cooperation with South America, the Amazon, the Caribbean and, more generally, the whole Atlantic territory.

Culturally too, there are shared initiatives. I’m thinking, for example, of the SSE in Colombia or Venezuela, which we talk about a lot because they have a form of popular economy based on cooperatives. It’s also a question of how we can draw inspiration from these things. In French Guiana, we are identifying initiatives and ways of doing things that are echoed in our communities and that can be used to promote the emergence of the SSE — or at least greater recognition of the SSE in our territories — and to bring it to national and European levels.

To this end, we are currently working to identify initiatives in Brazil, Amapa, Suriname, Guyana, and what I call the triangle with Haiti, which is also home to many SSE initiatives, to plan ahead and launch cooperative ventures. We’ve also been able to forge closer links with the world of academic research through the Université de Guyane and the Université des Antilles, which have launched an institute in connection with SSE topics. In this context, we’re setting up things that will enable us to come up with methodologies and impacts to better launch these cooperative ventures in the region. We also have initiatives underway with links to Quebec. One example is an organization in French Guiana that was able to launch a cooperation with cooperatives in Quebec, and set up exchanges. We also have cross-border cooperation structures to work on digital and tech issues in the Amazon basin.

Djémilah: Thank you very much, Elodie. We’re hearing that there are already some dynamics underway and that there’s a real desire to become involved in cooperation in the basin or with countries bordering French Guiana. It’s always a pleasure to hear about these initiatives.

As we approach the end of our podcast, thank you, all! We remain aware of the paradigm shift, the urgency, and the need for cooperation. The clock is ticking, time is running out. Thank you all for listening and thank you again to the Post Growth Institute for sharing knowledge and visions to support the change we all believe in and hope to see — for me, at least, it already exists. Spending time with a group like this one today, I’m filled with hope.