Social and Solidarity Economy Social innovation in the world of work 27 – 31 July 2015, Johannesburg, South Africa

Social and SolidarityEconomySocial innovationin the world of work

27 – 31 July 2015,Johannesburg, South Africa

Recap of day 1 and participants inputs

Social and SolidarityEconomyDay 2 _ focus

• Case studies including participants experiences

• Way forward : how to promote the social and solidarity economy?

Social and SolidarityEconomyExploring participant’s country

experience on SSE and IE (20)

• Expert’s panel answering following questions

1. Is transition to the formal economy as a way to address the informal economy, a priority in your country?

2. Examples from your country where social economy enterprises act as a bridge between informality and formality?

3. Are there specific target groups in the informal economy that you see would benefit from this approach?

• Opportunities and challenges for implementation

Social and SolidarityEconomy

Case study 1 (5)

• Case study 1: SWACH - Workers cooperative in India - Waste-pickers cooperative for efficient waste management and decent work

SWaCH: Waste-pickers cooperative for efficient waste management and decent work

Social and SolidarityEconomySolid Waste Collection and Handling

• SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling or, officially, the SWaCH Seva Sahakari Sanstha Maryadit, Pune) is India’s first wholly-owned cooperative of self-employed waste pickers /waste collectors and other urban poor.

• Working in Pune, India, a city of close to 3.2 million


Solid Waste Collection and Handling

SWaCH addresses 3 issues:

• Inadequate formal services: The municipal collection system only collects waste from 7% of households, leaving 86% of waste to be collected from community bins in public areas. SWaCH members collect garbage from households and other establishments and transfer them to municipal collection points.• Sustainability: Typically garbage enters the municipal system in mixed form, making it difficult to do material recovery. SWaCH members sort the waste before it goes to the municipal collection point.• Poor working conditions for informal wastepickers: Wastepickers (mainly women and children) face social stigma and abysmal working conditions, wading through filthy dumps and often fighting with animals for scraps. By going directly to people’s homes, waste pickers can encourage households to pre-sort their garbage.

Social and SolidarityEconomySolid Waste Collection and

Handling

SWaCH members also operate other schemes to benefit waste pickers. This includes running a fair trade scrap shop and advocating within city government for shaded sorting areas. The organization also provides health insurance, scholarships, and social support.


Case study 2 (5)

• Case study 2: Voice and representation through SSE types of organizations : SEWA

Case study 3

Raising the standard of living of rural women through cooperative develoment

- The case of Argan Oil in Morocco -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6hz9pjkRjQ



Social and SolidarityEconomyBackground

• Argan tree is the second most important forest species in Morocco (over 20 million trees covering 800,000 hectares)

• It only grows in Morocco. Its oil is produced for culinary and cosmectic use;

• Moroccan women have known for centuries about the many virtues of the oil they extract from the kernels of the argan tree;

• Very hard and time-consuming extraction process that requires collecting the fruit, drying it, extracting the kernels, crushing them, then pressing the resulting paste to obtain the oil.


Background (con’t)

• Women make argan oil in their homes, with their families while men take care of selling the product usually on the roadside or in the souks (low generated income)

• 2 million people depend on the Argan tree for their subsistence (1 million from the countryside)

Social and SolidarityEconomyRural women’s empowerment thru

cooperatives

• Organisation of the sector into cooperatives to with the goal of preserving their traditional know-how, better managing the arganeraies, and optimising revenue management.

• Individual producers were brought together to ensure better prices, more efficient production, and a broader sense of kinship with their fellow producers.

• Women were trained in coop education, qualitative quality standards, hygiene, and tracaeability.


AchievementsBefore After

Women were not receiving the money directly

Women receive their money directly from the president and treasurer of each cooperative

Women were not free to buy what they needed and could not enjoy their income

Women are empowered

Women were working from their homes

Women work in groups

Lack of hygiene and the oil extraction process done informally

- Women are applying a new crushing method

- Hygiene standards have been introduced

Some women were illiterate 60% of women can now read and write

Lack of training (incl. managerial skills)

They benefit from training and management modules

Lack of marketing strategy Women are now aware of marketing issues surrounding the Argan oil sector

Social and SolidarityEconomyAchievements

• The sale price of argan oil increased from € 3 to € 17 a litre between 1996 and 2005.

• Over 170 cooperatives representing 5,000 women across Morocco

• Regional/International recognition: In 2012, the Tighanimine (Agadir) cooperative was awarded a prize for its work in the area of good governance and its social and economic impact by the Moroccan network for Social and Solidarity Economy and the Pan-African Institute for Development. Besides, it was the first argan oil producing organisation in the world to obtain the Fairtrade label.


Fishbowl (40’): Way forward in promoting SSE

• How could the Johannesburg Action plan be used to promote SSE• National action plans • Special measures • Role of tripartite constituency


Wrap up and evaluation

Documents

Social and Solidarity Economy Social innovation in the world of work 27 – 31 July 2015, Johannesburg, South Africa