Before Manila

Facilitation team of the theme: Martine Theveniaut – European Pacts; Yvon Poirier –Canadian Community Economic Development Network; Françoise Wautiez – Resource Center www.socioeco.org

The preparatory efforts: From July 22 to Octobre, 60 contributions in three phases. All: http://www.ripess.org Summarized by 60 contributions, syntheses of the debates and the downloadable proposals www.pactes-locaux.org (in the date of October 7th, 2013: the experiences of the ESS in territories)

October 17 – Seven experiences were presented:

Bhola Bhattarai – Nepal’s Community Forest in the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy

Shah Abdus Salam – Sustainable livilyhoods through small-scale agriculture – Bangladesh

Judith Hitchman – Community Supported Agriculture and SSE (URGENCI) – Europe

Nelson Melo – Latin America and Caribbean Coordination of small producers in Fair Trade-Latin America

Rosario Martinez – PECOSOL – A network for the defence of the territories – Guatemala et Central America

Ahmed Ait Haddout – Territorial coaching at the local level – Morocco

Michael Toye – Community Economic Development – Canada

Downloadable www.pactes-locaux.org (in the date of October 7th, 2013)

Proposals: The experiences presented confirmed the results of the on-line debate:

By taking back control over their lives, concrete individuals create the collective spaces they need to become organized. The approaches they adopt to make pacts are local and rooted in reality, as illustrated by examples from right across the world.

But it is important to point out that they are not simply focused on repairing problematic situations: they are engaged in a dynamic, interlinked and transforming process. These citizen initiatives anticipate modes of organization and institutional mechanisms and are fully committed to sustainable development.

The act of pooling and communicating lessons learnt from practical experience is gradually revitalizing the fundamentals of collective action. Together, these initiatives substantiate the relevance of economic forms that offer alternatives to state and capitalist models.

Yes, alongside management either via individual ownership rights or by the state, a third and competent institutional framework can exist wherein communities and organized groups can collectively manage common goods.

Yes, thanks to their use of concrete examples, these projects breathe new life into the collective perception of what constitutes the desirable – particularly for young people.

Yes, words and action are both vital to changing direction. It will be a long journey…

The debates validated three priorities for the territorial approach of the ESS in the next years

1 -Strengthen cooperation and solidarity at the local level.

2- Organize democratic territorial governance at different levels of the social, economic and the ecological spheres.

3 – The contributions of the territorial approach to the global project of a social solidarity economy as an alternative model.

Specific proposals from participants

– Get together to reinforce the economic base of the local communities, install bien vivir (living well) and organize demand for local foods

– Promote laws in favor of small farmers and the respect of fair trade agreements

– Promote the inclusion of SSE in post disaster development

– Promote local Food Councils

– Promote local food hubs

– Remove food from the WTO (World Trade Organization) to avoid food-price speculation and commodification

– Mobilise support for the respect of human rights, protect community lands from predatory mining activities, against drug groups in indigenous communities their want to save their land (Guatemala).

– Solidarity tourism conveys the values, messages and practices of SSE for exchanges and for positive impact (at the economic, sociocultural and environmental) between the peoples.

– Create an intercontinental workgoup on SSE and Territories in order to have permanent exchanges of knowledge and other activities (for example learning journeys) instead of just meeting every four years.

Report: Yvon Poirier et Martine Theveniaut