In recent decades, the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) has been the subject of growing interest on the part of policymakers around the world.  This has led to many recognitions at the institutional and political levels. However, some important challenges remain for the SSE, including access to credit. The ILO Resolution on decent work and the social and solidarity economy, adopted in June 2022, mentions the issue of financing SSE entities and the need to facilitate their better access to financial services through specific instruments. SSE organizations and enterprises often suffer from a shortage of resources to support their start-up phase and consolidate their market positioning.  In fact, SSE organizations, due to their characteristics, have difficulties in accessing financial products aimed at maximizing return on capital or allocating ownership rights and governance powers commensurate with capital contributions. It is not surprising, therefore, that many financial products used by for-profit enterprises are not suited to the social solidarity economy. In short, the social and solidarity economy, characterized by elements not aligned with those of typical forms of financing in capitalist economies, is severely limited in its access to the most diffuse financial instruments. In the ILO report “Decent Work and the Social and Solidarity Economy” of 2022, there are many references and examples of the problems related to the financing of SSE entities. It is worth mentioning that the 2019 ILO document “Financial mechanisms for innovative social and solidarity economy ecosystems” highlights the lack, in many countries, of data on the SSE and even more on its modalities of access to financial services, alerting to the need to seek available evidence, avoiding prejudices.

In recent decades, there has been growing interest and openness towards more sustainable and socially responsible forms of financing. Moreover, in the wake of the 2008 crisis, the traditional financial sector has tried to shed its predatory image. 

Terms such as “social finance”, “impact finance”, “ethical banking”, “social and solidarity finance”, “finance with a purpose”, “complementary currencies”, “crowdfunding”, “social impact bonds” and “impact investing” are more and more present and adopted by different actors with different motivations. 

This session will present examples of financial resources available to SSE organizations on different continents, for what purposes they are used and how they can be accessed. From this first overview, we will seek to propose what additional financial mechanisms may be needed for the SSE. Reference will also be made to the main aspects related to the demand and supply of social finance mechanisms through research and experiences on the subject in different realities, as well as to some cases included in two recent ILO research projects involving 15 countries in 4 continents (links in the references section).