ECLAC participated in the first version of the Congress on Social, Solidarity and Cooperative Economy in Brazil

The Investment and Business Strategies Unit of the Division of Productive and Business Development of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) participated in the first version of the Brazilian Congress of Social, Solidarity and Cooperative Economy, with the aim of presenting the results of the study Institutions and public policies for cooperative development in Latin America, edited by Felipe Correa, an official of the Division, and published in April of this year.

The meeting, organized in a hybrid way from August 24 to 26 by the Faculty of Administration and Accounting of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), had the purpose of discussing the Social and Solidarity Economy, the Public Economy and Cooperativism in Brazil and Latin America.

At the meeting, Felipe Correa presented the main results of the work published by ECLAC, which included the participation of researchers from eight countries in the region: Dalia Borge from the School of Social Economy (Costa Rica), Hugo Jácome from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Ecuador), Juan Pablo Martí from the University of the Republic (Uruguay), Leandro Morais from the Paulista State University (Brazil), Mario Radrigán from the University of Santiago (Chile), Juan José Rojas from the Autonomous University of Chapingo (Mexico), Mario Schujman from the National University of Rosario (Argentina) and Marietta Bucheli from the Javeriana University (Colombia).

The document updates the knowledge and scope of Latin American cooperativism, given that the first post of ECLAC in this regard dates back to 1989.

The research shows an acceleration of the cooperative sector in the region from 2008 onwards, highlighting the creation of public institutions dedicated to this subject in Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico, among others.

The work also reveals a marked difference between countries in the region in relation to partners and employees who are part of cooperatives, with Uruguay being one of the countries with the highest percentage of representatives in this type of productive organization. Likewise, it presents data on the distribution of companies in the cooperative sector in terms of their size, being mostly micro-enterprises (71.4%), highlighting Brazil as the country with the largest number of cooperative micro-enterprises (86%).

In relation to the institutionality that is in charge of generating policies and support programs for the cooperative sector, an important strengthening is concluded, especially in countries with greater cooperative development and that have greater capacities at the level of officials and resources associated with this type of economy, such as Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay.

The strengthening of the institutionality of this sector in the region continues to be a challenge in the region, in order to make visible and promote the social and solidarity economy as a model of inclusive productive development, stated Felipe Correa. In the same way, he added, it is key to improve the availability of statistics on the universe of entities linked to the social and solidarity economy, with annual administrative records and relevant variables such as the number of organizations, members that are part of it, employees, production, among other.