Fruit farmers, members of the MESSE (Movement for the Social and Solidarity Economy of Ecuador), market their produce through the Instituto Proalimentos, that buy the fruit in order to distribute it among the boys and girls who attend public schools. Instituto Proalimentos buys at a fair price and subsidizes transport and distribution to the supplying organizations. In doing so, they guarantee the food sovereignty of the children through the consumption of healthy products coming from the hands of farmer families. They also improve the income of farmer families by fostering the development of producer organizations and networks and by promoting equity between rural and urban areas through the generation of fair and solidarity food distribution and marketing systems that prevent monopolistic practices with food products. Supplier organizations, in turn, generate local employment for fruit collection and cleaning. Alliances with local governments are formed in order for them to participate in the project and establish synergies at work. Thus, a renewed faith of the supplying organisations towards the State is also fostered.

Seoul has been a leading SSE city in Korea: its policy programs have been benchmarked by not only other local governments in Korea, but also governments in other Asian countries. One of the most important initiatives is the implementation of Socially Responsible Public Procurement (SRPP) at both the city and municipal levels in Seoul. The presentation will focus on the efforts of SSE sectors in Seoul for SRPP: how social economy organizations have led local governments to a SRPP policy and what changes have been brought about through these collaborative efforts between social economy organizations and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The issues and challenges in scaling up Seoul’s SRPP will also be discussed.

The Belgian context is favourable to developing social clauses at the legistic level. Social clauses primarily target efforts in the socio-professional integration of target audiences and the integration of persons with disabilities. The Walloon political authority places emphasis on the development of social clauses. A network of facilitators for social clauses was established, including the Public Service of Wallonia, represented by the Department of Sustainable Development, a construction workers’ representative organization, SAW-B, etc., and three terms of social clauses are aggressively promoted in the employment markets, with two of them involving work integration social enterprises (market reservation clause and flexible clause). Through public subsidies, SAW-B, a pioneer in supporting the development of social clauses, now mans a helpdesk and prospective analysis service for contracting authorities. Additionally, sectoral platforms for work integration social enterprises are managed around public market positioning. Meetings between work integration social enterprises and traditional businesses are organized to bring them closer together and stimulate diverse partnership approaches.