Last June the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) approved the important international document on social economy, Â OECDÂ Recommendation of the Council on the Social and Solidarity Economy and Social Innovation.
The OECD Recommendation on Social Economy represents the first internationally agreed standard to guide countries in setting policy environments and conditions to develop their social economy and covers the following key areas, aligned with the European Social Economy Action Plan:
- Foster a social economy culture
- Create supportive institutional frameworks
- Design enabling legal and regulatory frameworks
- Support access to finance
- Enable access to public and private markets
- Strengthen Skills and Business Development Support
- Encourage impact measurement and monitoring
- Support the protection of data
- Encourage social innovation
Moreover, the recommendation instructs the Directing Committee of the Co-operative Action Programme on Local Employment and Economic Development to serve as a forum for exchanging information on the social economy and social innovation, aiming to foster multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary dialogue and developing an implementation toolkit to support Adherentsâ implementation of the Recommendation.