GSEF Newsletter September 2019

New GSEF office at Seoul Global Centre

We are delighted to tell you that GSEF moved into a new office at Seoul Global Centre, located in the heart of Seoul. Although we missed the friendly environment in Seoul Innovation Park, the new office will allow us to have more interaction and collaboration with new potential partners.

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GSEF Training & Workshop Series: East Africa Training in Uganda took place between the 21st and 23rd of August in Kampala, Uganda. Over 60 participants among Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) stakeholders in the region joined this training and most of them found it informative and useful for their future manoeuvre to develop SSE in their country/city. The Kampala Declaration - Promoting the culture and practice of SSE in East Africa was also adopted by the participants after the training.

GSEF will organize a capacity building training for local government in Seoul between 28/10 and 1/11 2019. It aims to provide the space for open discussion and mutual learning for government officials with SSE actors and specialists and to expand the impact of SSE as an innovative strategy to achieve SDGs at the local level.

GSEF joined the efforts to facilitate the regional policy dialogues in Asia since its establishment in 2014. GSEF holds an Asia Policy Dialogues every year with the belief that the role of policy to nurture social economy for more inclusive and sustainable local development is significant. This year, the Asia Policy Dialogue will take place on 30 October in Seoul.

The 3rd edition of the GSEF Europe Policy Dialogue will take place in Liverpool, United Kingdom, around the theme ‘Building diversity and inclusion through the social and solidarity economy’. This event will gather local governments, civil society organizations, EU experts and activists from all over the United Kingdom and Europe to discuss how to action ideas about diversity, marginalization and inclusion through the SSE.

From 6 to 8 November 2019, the City of Niort will host the 5th edition of the National Forum for the Social and Solidarity Economy & Social Innovation. Over 3 days, numerous workshops, trainings, roundtables and networking opportunities will be held in parallel to exchange and discuss about how the social and solidarity economy (SSE) and social innovation provide responses to meet the challenges facing societies and are tools in the service of territories.

As part of a thematic session focused on international cooperation, Laurence Kwark, Secretary General of GSEF, will present a "world panorama of the SSE" and share the latest developments and good practices worldwide in this area, followed by a workshop focused on the added value of international cooperation activities for territories and other actors.

We are happy to welcome Miss. Sílvia REVERTÉ who joined us for an internship. Her internship is part of the collaboration between GSEF and Blanquerna University (Barcelona). Sílvia 's main responsibility is to provide assistance in preparing the GSEF 2020 in Mexico city and translating relevant materials.