The social economy pioneers new business models, provides essential services, contributes to job creation and a fairer, green and digital transition, engages youth and builds communities. National, regional and local governments can use this toolkit to implement the OECD Recommendation on the Social and Solidarity Economy and Social Innovation.
The OECD Toolkit for the Social Economy provides an instrument for policy makers and social economy actors to implement the nine building blocks of the OECD Recommendation on the Social and Solidarity Economy and Social Innovation.
The full legal text of the Recommendation can be accessed in the two official OECD languages, English and French, as well as in German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.
Designed to support policy makers in the development of effective and impactful policy frameworks, the Toolkit will help policy makers and stakeholders translate the OECD Recommendation into practice.
The toolkit is structured around the nine building blocks of the Recommendation. The building blocks correspond to an analytical framework and tool for policy makers to identify and address challenges that affect, to a greater or lesser extent, all countries regardless of the scale of their social economy. Each country, region or city will determine where, on this spectrum, the policy push might be needed at a given moment in time.
Encourage and promote the emergence and expansion of civil society initiatives and the strengthening of local social capital in general Create supportive institutional frameworks by clarifying who does what across ministries, public agencies, and levels of government.
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Clarify who does what across ministries, public agencies, and levels of government Support access to finance by encouraging knowledge and expertise of the social economy field in financial intermediaries and public financial support.
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Design clear, simple and easy to use legal frameworks that allow social economy organisations to effectively operate
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Encourage knowledge and expertise of the social economy field in financial intermediaries and public financial support.
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Include social and/or environmental considerations to help the social economy access procurement markets
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Mobilise adequate resources to develop skills and business development support for the social economy
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Encourage impact measurement and monitoring by disseminating successful practices and knowledge.
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Produce reliable data and evidence to support policy making and programmes.
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Promote new and cost-effective solutions to unleash the full potential of the social economy
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The Recommendation promotes the social economy’s potential to pioneer new business models, provide essential services, contribute to a fairer, green and digital transition, engage youth, and build communities. It recognises the diversity of practice and the need for policy tools applicable to a range of country contexts and varying degrees of development of the social economy. The social economy is typically made up of organisations such as associations, cooperatives, foundations, mutual societies and social enterprises.
The community of practice, also known as the "informal expert group" (IEG) is a multi-stakeholder network by nominated experts, policy makers and practitioners from public, private and civil society sectors gathering twice a year. It is an international forum that provides a consultation mechanism and stakeholder platform to address questions around the social and solidarity economy, social enterprises and social innovation. It is a space where mutual learning and experience-sharing can take place and where useful practices can be identified and scaled up.
The OECD compiled the country fact sheets to provide a snapshot of the SSE space in covered countries, fully or partially. Information on the SSE ecosystems is presented by country and includes the existence of an official definition of the SSE, the size of the SSE, employment patterns, economic contribution (when available), legal and institutional frameworks surrounding the SSE, and existing social impact measurement initiatives. Given the diversity in how the SSE is recognised (or not) across countries, the country fact sheets provide a peek into what the SSE looks like in each country.
