Asian Alliance for Solidarity Economy

The Secretaria Nacional de Economia Solidária (SENAES), which belongs to the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment (MET), has just issued its news letter http://www.mte.gov.br/ecosolidaria/Acontece_SENAES_13_ed.pdf (Portuguese) and on page 1 you can read the following article (I translated it into English). I’ve never heard of any central bank helping community currency initiatives, but it should be interesting enough for the rest of the world too…
Best regards, Miguel Yasuyuki Hirota

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The cooperation agreement between SENAES and the Central Bank aims to realise studies on community banks and on social money, envisioning the creation of the monitoring and evaluation mechanism and of the development of this sector in Brazil.  After a decade of many articulation and mobilisation of the solidarity economy movement, with the support of SENAES, the recognition by the Brazilian State was won, by way of this terms of cooperation, that territoty-based communities (small municipalities, neighbourhoods) can build their monetary authority.

For the first time the Central Bank of Brazil recognised the existence of this tool called “community banks and social money” and their important as social technology which generates financial inclusion.  With this, community banks will be less vulnerable, both from the formal viewpoint – as definitions on their function, methodology, characteristics, attributes, goals and concepts are established – and SENAES closed a cooperation agreement with the Central Bank also for the more social visibility to be achieved.

At this moment, a working committee and the work agenda it will realise by itself are being created.  With the concretisation of the partnership there will be the elaboration of norms which should orient actors who want to know, support and develop community banks which use social money.  SENAES is proposing the realisation of five public hearings so that the society should join, together with the solidarity economy movement, in the sense to warrant the more participation in the elaboration of referred norms.

On the basis of this agreement, the community bank initiatives under way win a new institutional framework, enabling the realisation of new strategic partnerships for their development.  On top of that, these banks will be benefitted with the enhancement of of incentive and promotion policies, and the institutional environment will be quite favourable for the consolidation of such policies, which means that public resources for training activities, technical assistance and adequate credit lines.

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As shown on my recent messages, recently I’ve been trying to enhance my network with key player of solidarity economy in East Asia (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan).  I’ve been observing that here in East Asia the concept of social enterprise is much more popular than solidarity economy and many times those players have never heard of this term that we use everyday.

I have the feeling that East Asians prefer to keep in touch with English-speaking countries without trying to see Continental Europe or Latin America because they think what is practiced in English-speaking countries is the “global standard” while countries like France, Spain, Quebec, Mexico and Brazil are out of scope because they aren’t the superpower East Asians want to follow.  And this is why the concept of social enterprise, which came from the English establishment, is much more popular than solidarity economy from non-English speakers.

I’d like to remind you of the fact that many Asian countries are former British colonies and that therefore they tend to have much stronger linkage than France, Italy, Spain, Quebec, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina etc. (and today even countries like Vietnam and Cambodia prefer US and UK to France).  This is why I’ve been finding it quite hard to make people pay attention to those countries with which Asia doesn’t have much relationship but where solidarity economy is more solid than in the Anglo-Saxon world.

I’m afraid that solidarity economy will end up with being limited as a movement of only Romance-language-speaking countries, unable to reach a broad recognition in Asia.  And that’s why I’d like to ask you to pay special attention to this continent (well, Asia is by far the most populous continent in the world, right?) if we really want to build up solidarity economy as a worldwide movement.

I’d like to finish this message by suggesting that we should try to attend some key events in Asia so that we can enhance our presence.

Below is a list of events I’ve heard of, and it would be wonderful if I could count with your visit…

- 30th anniversary conference of the Japanese Society for Co-operative Studies. Fri, 15th to Sun, 17th or Fri, 22th to Sun, 24th, October (date to be fixed soon), Saga Univ., Saga, Japan. http://coopstudies.jp/ (in Japanese)

- Asian Social Enterpreneurs Summit, Mon, 29th and Tue, 30^th November, Seoul, Korea http://www.asiases.org/ (in English, Korean, Japanese and Chinsee, still showing its 1st summit in 2008)

- (another event on social enterprises in November in Hong Kong? to confirm): http://www.social-enterprise.org.hk/

I’ll be looking forward to your voices.

Best regards from Osaka, Japan

Miguel Yasuyuki Hirota

mig@olccjp.net; OLCCJP: http://www.olccjp.net; Blog: http://mig76en.wordpress.com (with link to other languages); http://migjp2003.wordpress.com/(in English and Spanish); Skype name: migjp2003; MSN: mig@lime.plala.or.jp

The Pactes Locaux are a collective of actors, founded in 1998.  In 2005 they became an officially registered NGO. Between 2007 and 2009, they worked on the approach of open capitalisation based on the broad theme of “Democratic participation and territorial anchorage”. This was the preparation for the International Forum of Lux’09, the IVth Meeting for the Globalisation of Solidarity of RIPESS  (workshop 7), organised in Luxemburg by INEES, the European Institute for Solidarity Economy.

The Pactes Locaux mobilised on a voluntary basis, over and above the members’ own individual activities to reach a specific objective. Their contribution to both French and European discussions has been original, and is based on their significant territorial achievements in dealing with key issues of today’s society. They held five regional meetings supported by a European working Platform. Expert practitioners presented their work at territorial level: work and employment issues in Poitou-Charentes, responsible tourism in Auvergne, local development and solidarity economy in Luxemburg, social cohesion and well-being in the urban environment of Fontenay-sous-Bois, rural/urban solidarity and the associated economy in the metroposiation of Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

This contribution has now been duly recognised. It is an element that allows the members to propose the “learning journey” approach as a tool for learning from each other in a variety of contexts. It is a horizontal practice that helps build bridges between generations and develop an understanding of stakes as well as constructing responsible territorial actions. The meeting that was held on December 1st in Poitiers (France) ended the Lux’09 cycle. It also helped to confirm that our projects resonate with other territories.

This process jointly served the following ends:

-    The Lux’09 Forum (cross-cutting and internationalisation of Workshop 7)

-    The FPH (dissemination / discussion of a new approach to œconomy, territories as actors, institutional connections)

- Of the members and associate partners

- The people responsible for developing the dynamics of Asia 2013 have adopted the territorial anchoring of solidarity economy; they now consider us as partners.

The positive evaluation of Lux’09 provides a lever for the future. The Pactes Locaux are a small, open collective. They are not party-political affiliated or members of any institutional organisation. Their recognition reaches beyond what they represent in terms of membership. They remain a small dedicated team, united by what they have learned and their determination as civil society, to  take on reposnibility and change the system..

The Pactes Locaux intend continuing their work on European territorial cohesion. They hope to work on themes and in areas where their members and associate partners and those interested in taking part in the future, can work together. They hope to do this by demonstrating how reality and the expertise gained from practical know-how can help to illustrate, discuss and propose new ways of organising solidarity that can have a considerable impact and help open doors to solutions to the current crisis.

8.5 million jobs have been lost in Europe since 2008. In France, 1 million people will lose their job-seekers allowances in 2010. Exclusion is becoming the rule rather than the exception. The institutions are not supporting those actors involved in hands-on work. Things are becoming increasingly difficult. The Pactes Locaux will not succeed on their own. The question is how to preserve our individual freedom, while supporting each other and serving the interest of all? Learning to work as partners involves a legitimate confrontation of ideas and genuinely working together.

This means being realistic and taking stock, the better to position the collective. The members of the collective have decided to:

- Continue the commitment to work in those territories and networks that make sense to them, and where they are already present

-    Provide each other with mutual support in their respective activities, with priority support for the in-depth projects

- Promote the “Learning Journey” approach as an awareness-raising framework for learning, co-operating and bringing together local actors

- Jointly work on developing means of paid work

- Specifically aim to contact elected local representatives: future local councillors, intercommunal elected representatives, members of collective approaches such as Districts, Agenda 21s, social networks…. The current context favours a return to things local, which is fundamentally important to sustainable development, employment, peace etc… It also shows what a huge deficit exists in the ability to accompany progress and pull together as a system, rather than pulling strings from above or the outside. This is true in all fields: economic, political or alternative approaches. This missing link, the interface between branches and different levels has yet to be created if we are to reach a better understanding and effectively implement an operational approach to restructuring our territories

- Become and remain, active partners in FPH, RIPESS Europe and in French and European territorial networks,  activities and events

- Continue working on consensual aspects of Workshop 7 “Democratic Participation and territorial anchorage” (Forum Lux’09, April 2009) in Europe, and prepare for the Asian Solidarity Economy Forum in Kuala Lumpur in 2011 and “The Road to Manila 2013” (the Vth International RIPESS Meeting).

Contacts.

-    President : France Joubert: +33 (0)6 70 001 467; francejoubert@wanadoo.fr

-    General Secretary: Martine Theveniaut: + 33 (0)4 686 99 288; martine.theveniaut4@orange.fr. Extended in-depth projects: project leaders.

-    France Joubert: +33 (0)6 70 001 467; francejoubert@wanadoo.fr. Employment and activities, social territorial dialogue: what alliances in/between territories?

- Alain Laurent:   +33 (0)5 61 624 68 ; beira.cfp@wanadoo.fr. Tourism and responsible territories: How can they converge?

- Bruno Racine: +33 (0)6 70 160 489; brunoracine@free.fr. What governance for developing territorial cohesion?

Martine Theveniaut: + 33 (0)4 686 99 288 martine.theveniaut4@orange.fr. «The road to Manilla 2013»: solidarity and territory, an international process.

- Peter Wollny: +33 (0)4 68 318 729; pw@base-sur-audois.fr. ICTs – a vector of democracy and initiatives for collective territoiral  projects

Headquarters: 5 rue de Cadène F – 11580 Alet les

By Jorge Soriano Bugnion (voluntary professional interpreter and activist. Original article in Spanish http://www.fao.org/wsfs/; http://peoplesforum2009.foodsovereignty.org/

The World Summit for Food Security was recently held in Rome (16th – 18th November) under the auspices of the FAO (the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation), headquartered in this city. The timing could not have been more appropriate, as the pretentious title of the meeting suggests: “Imagine. Achieving food security in times of crisis”. This notion of food security is aimed at food for all, even at the height of current global financial turbulence, with over one billion people in the world suffering from hunger. The aim of the first Millennium Development Goal – to halve the number of people suffering from hunger by 2015 compared with the figures for 1990 – is far from today’s reality. If we add the uncertain impacts of climate change on agriculture, the profit-driven interests of agribusiness and predatory attitudes of governments, the outlook for the most vulnerable is indeed pessimistic.

A parallel meeting: People’s Forum on Food Sovereignty

Civil society rose to the occasion, and organised their own space for discussion in the People’s Food Sovereignty Forum that was also held at the same dates in Rome, parallel to the FAO Summit. I had the privilege of being a member of the volunteer interpreting team that was responsible for supporting the communication between over 400 delegates who had come from all over the world. The objective was to promote the right of rural communities to define their own agricultural model that respects their ecological, social, economic and cultural traditions. Food sovereignty prioritises local consumption, access of small farmers to natural resources, to land, seeds and agricultural biodiversity. It condemns the use of food production as either a trade or a political weapon. A great number of civil society organisations participated in the Forum. The International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty represented them in their discussions with the “United Nations system”, mainly the FAO and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development).

The final declaration text from the People’s Forum, from which I have extracted a few key points, mentions the importance of considering the Food Security Committee of the FAO as the privileged body for developing international policies on food and agriculture, especially as the recent reform that has been approved confers a greater role on the representatives of civil society. The declaration also discusses the appropriate financial support provided by members of the FAO to enable the Committee to carry out its work in an adequate manner, guided by the human right to food. Financial resources have been proposed by the World Bank and other international financial institutions, whose past mechanisms of governance have shown a lack of democracy and transparency; this means there is a risk of the same mistakes being made as in the past. “As long as institutions such as the WTO continue to privilege commercial interests over the globally marginalised and malnourished, hunger will continue to stalk the world”.

The text also defends the need to respect ecological supply chains, and condemns the aggressive mercantile approach to nature and knowledge. It requests a global moratorium on GMOs and invites all States to take immediate adequate action to protect and regulate national food markets by managing supplies to guarantee the availability of food, decent pay and fair prices. States should guarantee joint control of land through integrated agrarian reform that respects both individual and collective access to land, and control over territories.

Concerning the control of resources for food production, the Declaration condemns the alarming land- and water-grabbing currently practiced by certain countries and multinationals. In less than one year, 40 million hectares of fertile land in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe have been usurped through agreements that favour this practice and displace local food production in favour of export crops. The Declaration also opposes intellectual property rights aimed at protecting living resources such as seeds, plants and animals.

Finally, the text commits civil society to building alliances via the International Planning Committee and presents the input from the different work groups that took place during the Forum: Women, who defend their role in food sovereignty, youth who plead for education and training in agricultural practice, fishing and animal husbandry, indigenous peoples who demand the right to land and who consider nature as a living being that is essential to the identity and culture of their communities.

The FAO Summit Declaration

The official declaration of the FAO Summit expresses good intentions and pompous commitments in their five Principles of Rome for sustainable global food security: 1) invest in national plans to channel resources aimed at NGOs and well-designed results-oriented programmes, 2) encourage strategic co-ordination of national, regional and global plans in order to improve governance and promote a better distribution of resources, 3) work towards food security through direct emergency measures aimed at the most vulnerable groups, in order to fight hunger and poverty, 4) guarantee the role of the multilateral institutions, 5) guarantee the commitment of all to investing in agriculture, food security and nutrition, in order to fund pluri-annual plans and programmes.

The civil society Forum criticised the FAO for grounding the achievement of the above principles in the creation of a High Level Action Group on the crisis in food security at the instigation of the Secretary General of the United Nations. This is in the context of the reform of the Committee for food security. Civil society’s disagreement is due to the fact that the Action Group supports the multinationals that are patenting seeds and commercialising GMOs in order to implement projects with many large international philanthropic foundations who are operating on funds from the World Bank.

Civil society condemns the fact that the FAO also delegates “the strategic co-ordination of national, regional and global plans” to a “global Alliance for agriculture, food security and nutrition”, created by the industrialised countries of the G8 that – and this is no mere coincidence – control most of the food system by imposing production models that are contrary to the interests defended by small-scale farmers.

The principle of Rome also includes the World Trade Organisation, and suggests on paper that global markets become more open to small-scale farmers from developing countries, in order to enable them to increase their productivity, and compete in more equal circumstances. Civil society organisations again reproached this attitude: Although the WTO is a multilateral institution representing countries of all sorts, and with a decision-making system based on the principle of “one country, one vote” it is important to realise that in the corridors of power some countries club together to defend their interests more than those of others, in terms of the available resources, the size of the economic and legal lobby and their influence. Once again, the developing countries have a handicap in negotiations before they even begin.

Challenges for the years to come

It’s time to square up on the chess board: one camp defends food sovereignty, protected by rural tradition and the ancestral knowledge of peoples and communities, while the other is in favour of technological green revolutions, the industrialisation of agriculture and GMOs. These are the black and white, even grey squares on the board… Can there be no meeting of the ways in this struggle for power?

Ethical commitment and respect of the environment, of ecosystems and subsistence means of rural populations should take priority; it is necessary to avoid ideological and political prejudice as well as economic interests that may block the path. If we really wish to reach a reciprocal commitment of all stakeholders, we need to consider that achieving a joint solution is a moral obligation that broadens our field of vision.

Food sovereignty implies a sense of responsibility. On one hand, governments need to guarantee supplies of accessible food that is culturally acceptable and nourishing, and to facilitate emergency access to those in need of help, without undermining the principle of sovereignty. On the other, farmers and producers should participate in the decision-making process as to how to grow and distribute food. Their know-how is both their heritage and their contribution. Food is life. It comes from the land that we work and from animals that we raise or hunt. It is nature, culture, tradition, religion, the identity of peoples and nations. We savour it, appreciate it, dream about it; it awakens feelings and emotions in our hearts; it brings us together, satisfies us, makes us aware of our essential being and our shared identity. As citizens, we can, through our acts, set the example for future generations, through responsible consumption, by cultivating our curiosity as to the origin and way in which food is produced, and by drawing closer to nature. We are all involved in the future of our planet and we can no longer remain dependent on decisions taken by others.

Published in International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development,  Newsletter # 65. February 1, 2010

By Mario Osava

IPSnews

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 15, 2010 (IPS) – The initiatives were already there, in the form of cooperatives and a variety of related activities. But they have a new connectedness thanks to the growing solidarity economy, which has opened up new horizons for alternative forms of production and social relations.

The Fio Nobre Cooperative, founded 15 years ago by Idalina Boni, evolved from craftsmaking to textiles, and now produces shirts, blouses, t-shirts, skirts, pants, shorts, dresses and handbags, as well as accessories like necklaces, in Itajaí, a port city in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

Once Fio Nobre reached a certain quality level, thanks in part to a fashion designer, it began to export its products. The cooperative already has contacts in Italy and France, and in February Boni will travel to Spain to market its goods.

Before setting up Fio Nobre, Boni was active for years in rural, community health and human rights movements, based on her belief in liberation theology, a progressive current in the Catholic Church that works to empower the poor.

“When you’re young, you think you can change the world,” she told IPS.

But unemployment forced her to come up with a project that could bring in an income on which to survive while she continued her efforts “to at least improve the world,” she said.

That gave rise to Fio Nobre and the organisation of an organic clothing production chain stretching from cotton farming to the final sale, under the Justa Trama brand name.

A number of other collective initiatives based on cooperation and self-management, and free of the employer-employee relationship, have networked at the World Social Forum, whose annual editions were held in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, where it first emerged.

The Brazilian Solidarity Economy Forum (FBES) emerged at the 2003 WSF, which coincided with the start of the government of leftwing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who established a National Secretary of the Solidarity Economy (SENAES) under the Labour Ministry.

The movement in Brazil differs from those of other countries, because it combines three dimensions, said FBES executive secretary Daniel Tygel. Besides the economic aspect, which comprises self-management and the creation of cooperatives and networks, it includes a cultural dimension, related to consumption, gender relations and areas like free software, as well as a policy of social transformation.

In the long term, “we want to change the model of production and the direction of development, towards a model that is not harmful to life,” said Tygel.

Brazil’s solidarity economy ranges from agricultural production, which accounts for 60 percent of the groups linked by the FBES, to crafts, apparel, microcredit cooperatives, bankrupt companies that have been salvaged by workers’ cooperatives, community church projects and university incubators of solidarity businesses.

Although the solidarity economy currently represents a “paltry” share of the national economy, as Tygel acknowledged, it is growing fast, despite the scant government resources dedicated to supporting its development.

But although SENAES has a tiny budget, cooperatives and related initiatives also receive financial support from the ministries of Agricultural Development, Social Development and others.

Forging connections between the numerous and varied small local initiatives and making headway in terms of marketing and sales are the big challenges facing the solidarity economy.

But there are successful examples of integrated production chains and networks, like Justa Trama, in which the need to secure raw materials produced under the same shared principles – of horizontal labour relations and environmental sustainability – brought together several textile cooperatives and an association of more than 700 cotton farmers.

Justa Trama and the solidarity economy movement fuelled “the quantity and especially the quality of Fio Nobre’s production,” said Idalina Boni. The cooperative’s output climbed from 1.5 tons in 2005 to eight tons in 2008.

The production chain runs from the “ecological cotton” grown by family farmers in nine municipalities in the northeastern state of Ceará through a textile cooperative that makes yarn and fabrics in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais to three garment-making cooperatives in the south.

Buttons, collars and other components, meanwhile, are made from seeds gathered by members of another cooperative in the Amazon jungle state of Rondonia.

The biggest hurdles faced by organic farming cooperatives are marketing and selling their products.

In the northeast, Brazil’s poorest and driest region, the Xique Xique network of community-focused and solidarity-based marketing, which takes its name from a local cactus, facilitates the marketing of products by family farmers in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, organised in hundreds of groups, which make up nine larger cooperatives.

Agroecology, women’s rights and empowerment, and the solidarity economy are the “three main focuses” of the fast-growing network, which links production and trade, said Viviana Mesquita, a local technical assistant with SENAES.

“Women have a greater vocation for the solidarity economy,” but their strong presence in Xique Xique is also due to the local activity of the World March of Women, said the activist, a sociologist who has been active in the community organising and environmental movements. (END)

Please receive our best wishes so that the year 2010 will be constructive for “en route to Manila via Kuala Lumpur».

Here are some news from Pactes Locaux. We have not yet renewed efforts to go forward with the Internet forum we had to prepare Tokyo.  There are still strings to be attached. Sorry for this delay.

Pierre Calame is very pleased with our work. But now, he is not any more the «leader» of the FPH. His son, Matthieu Calame has just taken over.  We know that the project Pactes Locaux is included within the «social and solidarity economy” and «territory” projects.  Pierre would be grouped in one cluster around a web-site project on international contacts. I think Pierre has contacted Ben about it. This is an excellent thing.

But for the Pactes Locaux, uncertainty remains on our place to prepare Kuala Lumpur (2011) and Manila (2013), and financial support to continue the learning journey process.

We have general meeting January 20 at the FPH. We requested a moment of encounter (after the conclusion of our internal work), at about 16:00 with our FPH interlocutors in this transition: Peter, Matthew, Gustavo Marin (who follows projects from Asia at the FPH) and Thomas Weiss, who follows the projects on website and COREDEM (Coordination of resources for a global democracy). We hope to learn more.

It is certain that we will continue, but can not yet say in any way. The meetings between practitioners are essential to our eyes for a common understanding and facilitate reconciliation between the different continents. Learning journeys are a great way to learn.

As agreed in writing the draft (June 2009), the involvement of Pactes Locaux in the preparation of 2013 has the objective of “conducting an active approach to research partnerships of grassroots actors with financial and institutional support, to give greater scope to the continental stages of preparation of the meeting in Asia.”

So thank you for your patience. Depending on the response of the FPH (and the support it brings us finally), we can decide how to proceed realistically, but with determination.

A message for Denison. Yvon has shared with me the news he saw on the Internet about the violence that has erupted in Malaysia with religious intolerance as a background.  We are very sad about this and our best wishes for peaceful resolution of this difficult situation.

Yours sincerely

Martine Theveniaut and France Joubert
(and Yvon, thank You Yvon, for helping us to translate and correct this message)