The brazilian Network of Solidarity Economy Public Policy Managers was developed by public policy managers in response to pressure from solidarity economy workers to provide adequate responses for this sector that is increasingly important in generating jobs and promoting local development. The Network of Solidarity Economy Public Policy Managers is formed by managers of municipal, state and federal level. It aims to facilitate interaction and organization in favour of the SSE, propose governmental public policies, contribute to the propossals and actions developed by government agencies for the SSE and implement joint projects for the promotion and development of the solidarity economy. The Network participates in the Brazilian Solidarity Economy Forum (a civil society structure) to stimulate partnerships between the three levels of government and other public agencies responsible for social economy policies, such as financial institutions, universities, and research agencies. It also builds partnerships to carry out activities and common projects of the network, such as the training of the public actors.

Local communities have a significant role to play in the development of the SSE. The Réseau des collectivités Territoriales pour une Economie Sociale et Solidaire (Network of Territorial Local Authorities for the Social and Solidarity Economy) has been working for more than ten years in order to strengthen the SSE’s position in public policies in France. Nowadays it gathers more than 130 French local governments (regions, departments, inter-communalities, cities of all sizes) that share a conviction: the SSE is the answer to economic, social, environmental and democratic challenges of the territories and must be developped through the implementation of public policy coconstructed with SSE stakeholders.  Amongst other things these policies affect solidarity financing, the direct participation of the local government in solidarity enterprises (mainly through Community Interest Companies), the role of public purchasing (through the implementation of social or environmental clauses) and the link with universities and research.

The Catalonian solidarity economy is experiencing a significant moment. For the first time, city councils ruled by different political forces and including the most important ones (such as Barcelona, Badalona and Sabadell), are determined to promote it as a development tool for their municipalities and they are willing to undertake this process  together, organized in a network of municipalities for the social and solidarity economy. This situation is the result of a process encouraged, to a great extent, by the Xarxa d’Economia Solidaria de Catalunya (XES), the network organization that, since 2002, binds together people, organizations and projects for social and economic transformation aimed at overcoming inequality and capitalism. With its document “Hacia la democracia económica municipal; 14 medidas para impulsar la economía social y solidaria a nivel local” (Toward municipal economic democracy; 14 measures to promote social and solidarity economy at the local level) the XES appealed to the political forces that ran in the local elections of May 2015, to include actions “aimed at a more democratic and sustainable economy”. This is now being done, within a network.

Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) has become a key strategy of many Korean local governments for developing their cities. In this presentation we illustrate the efforts of leading Korean local governments to build a network organization to foster SSE and integrate SSE into their development strategies. These efforts include a wide range of collaborations with other partners including the National Assembly of Korea in order to have develop and implement SSE-related legislation. Major projects that the network has successfully carried out will also be introduced and illustrate the capacity of the network to disseminate social innovation.

The objective is to systematically structure the SSEs at a territorial level, in this case at the village level. Doing so allows more effective support and the better promotion of the initiatives in which stakeholders are involved. A A local SSE and support network is offered to the network of collective and cooperative enterprises from various sectors. Mayors are trained to understand and welcome this dynamics in their territories. This is the reason why we have chosen a mayor in order to co-present the initiative with the RELESS of his village.