Yesterday, 18 April 2023, the United Nations adopted the first-ever Resolution on promoting the social and solidarity economy for sustainable development during its General Assembly.

The resolution includes a definition of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) as “enterprises, organisations and other entities engaged in economic, social and environmental activities which serve the collective and/or general interest, based on the principles of voluntary cooperation and mutual aid, democratic and/or participatory governance, autonomy and independence and the primacy of people and social purpose over capital in the distribution and use of surpluses and/or profits.”

Yesterday’s resolution recognises how the SSE can contribute “to the achievement and localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in terms of employment and decent work, the provision of social services, the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, access to affordable finance, and local economic development (…), as well as inclusive and sustainable growth”, among others.

ICMIF is a founding member of the International Coalition of Social and Solidarity Economy (ICSSE) the objectives of which are to gather, strengthen and make known a community of SSE actors, to deepen advocacy for the recognition of SSE and to promote SSE as a field of economic activity that must be recognised and that is useful for the implementation of the SDGs.

Shaun Tarbuck, Chief Executive, ICMIF welcomed yesterday’s resolution saying: “This is a historic moment for the social and solidarity economy sector. We hope that the resolution will be a key factor in increasing the visibility of mutuals, cooperatives and other SSE organisations.

“In our current ICMIF Strategy for 2023-2026: Leading with purpose and impact, we have our higher purpose as Creating a safer, more resilient world and our belief is that ICMIF members, as mutual and cooperative insurers and therefore members of the SSE family, are key contributors in achieving a great number of the SDGs.

“We also hope that, as recommended in the resolution, the UN Member States will adopt an inclusive approach and will make use of it to develop adequate support measures and legal frameworks for all mutuals and cooperatives, especially those in the insurance sector. We believe it is essential to recognise that mutuals and cooperatives provide a great contribution to the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals but many countries do not yet recognise these models,” Tarbuck concluded.

The resolution notes that, to accelerate efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the Secretary-General, in his report entitled Our Common Agenda, encourages a broader range of businesses, from multinational corporations to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, to participate in the Sustainable Development Goals and climate action. This is in line with ICMIF’s work to support its members in terms of sustainable investments; the sharing of sustainability best-practice and successes; and even in terms of measuring members’ SDG impact with the ICMIF-calibrated Insurance SDG Calculator, the first tool to measure insurance sustainability impact against the Insurance Sustainable Development Goals (iSDGs).

ICMIF was also delighted to note that French member MAIF was represented at the UN General Assembly yesterday by its President, Yves Pellicier, and Head of Public Affairs, Stéphane Tisserand. They had been asked to accompany the official French delegation which was led by Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life. Before the trip, Pellicier commented on LinkedIn: “Being an active member of the SSE sector is a unique way to act in the long term…At MAIF, these values allow us to act for the common good on a daily basis, to engage our members, activists, collaborators, to propose a new path, and why not, inspire others. As President of our mutual, I will go alongside Marlène Schiappa, to the UN, in New York, to lead the way of the French SSE. On this occasion, the UN resolution on this economy, which puts the general interest first, will be adopted. I am proud to represent MAIF in this global body, to represent the daily work, the sincere commitment, the unfailing will of our collective.”

The Resolution Promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development (A/77/L.60) is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Image: Csaba Kőrösi (left at dais and on screens), President of the seventy-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly, chairs the 66th plenary meeting of the General Assembly. UN Photo/Loey Felipe.