Updates from WG Smart Social Inclusion

EUROCITIES Social Affairs Forum

Utrecht, 7-8 March 2018

Updates from WG smart social inclusion

Wednesday, 7 March, 16:00-17:30

Venue: Tivoli Vredenburg, Vredenburgkade 11

1. EUROCITIES publication on social entrepreneurship

EUROCITIES produced a publication on the role of cities in promoting social entrepreneurship. This publication is based on the work our WG Smart Social Inclusion. We collected and analysed good practices from 11 cities across the EU on city initiatives to promote social economy and social entrepreneurship. This report looks into the tools cities use to support the social economy – funding, network of social economy actors, infrastructure and impact hubs – as well as the success factors, bottlenecks and challenges, and puts forward several recommendations. You can find the report here.

2. Social Entrepreneurship in Europe - An OECD-European Commission project

The OECD is working with the European Commission’s DG Employment to identify, assess and provide tailored advice to national or regional administrations in EU member states on the design and implementation of integrated policies and programmes for social enterprises. This project aims to foster mutual learning among stakeholders and practitioners, to monitor and compare policy and programme approaches, collect and disseminate good practices as well develop tools to support learning networks, events, and platforms. The working group is regularly updated on the project and its meeting discussions contribute to the recommendations shared with the OECD and the European Commission on the forthcoming tools. More info here.

3. Understanding and using Social Impact Bonds

A Social Impact Bond (SIB) is an innovative financing mechanism which sees governments or commissioners enter intoagreements with social service providers, such as social enterprises or non-profit organisations andinvestors, to pay for the delivery of pre-defined social outcomes. SIBs have beengainingattention of governments and public authorities, investors, social services providers, researchers, andevaluators among others internationally over the last few years. At the same time, they have triggered debates around issues such as the delivery of social services and the quest for efficiency,the risk in transferring delivery of these services from the public to private sector and what this entails for providers, thecapacity to monitor and evaluate better outcomes, and the increasingly prevalent need to invest in preventative interventions with high returns in the long-run. More info in the OECD report is available here. The working group is investigating existing successful SIBs schemes.

4. Strong support from member states for the social economy

On 23 May, the European Conference on Social Economytook place in Madrid. The conference was co-organised by the Ministry of Employment and Social Security of Spain, Social Economy Europe (SEE) and CEPES (Spanish Social Economy Confederation) anddiscussed an enterprise model for the future of Europe. Nine member states (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) adopted the Madrid Declaration, which calls on the European Commission to include and adequately finance a European action plan for the social economy in its 2018work programme, and to strengthen the role of the social economy in the European Pillar of Social Rights and in the ongoing debate on the future of Europe. More infohere.

5. Social enterprises and the social economy

A report by the Commission’sexpert group on social entrepreneurship (GECES) issued a call to action to the European Commission, EU countries and social enterprises organisations. It argues for a European action plan for the social economy and social enterprises, which would provide new impetus to promote an environment for social enterprises and the social economy to flourish, building on their core values such as democratic governance, social impact, innovation, profit reinvestment andputting people at the centre of the economy. More info here. More and more institutions are discussing how to best enhance the potential of the social economy and cities role in its development.

6. A European statute for social and solidarity-based enterprise

Social enterprises (SE) are subject to in an increasing number of ad-hoc EUlegislative initiatives. A recent study by the European Parliament’s JURI committee, ‘A European statute for social and solidarity-based enterprise’ explains why tailor-made legislation on social enterprise isessential for the development of this unconventional business model. It describes and compares existing models of social enterprise regulation anddiscusses the core elements of its legal identity, with the aim of providingrecommendations on the potential forms and content of an EU legal statute.More information can be foundhere. This publication echoes discussion already taking place in the working group, which emphasise the importance of diversity of social economy actors.

7. Work plan of the WG for 2018

-Developing analysis, key messages and recommendations on social entrepreneurship, publishing a statement illustrated by examples gathered in the collection of good practices with the aim of lobbying on social economy

-Exchange of experiences on new financing tools: Social Impact Bonds, Crowdfunding, etc.

-Focused Study visit on specific financial instrument for social inclusion or on the role of social economy- tbc

-Fostering innovation in/future proofing of social service delivery

• WG meeting and Nexus Forum on 24-26 April in Rotterdam. Founded in 2011, Nexus is an international network of more than 3000+ young investors, social entrepreneurs and allies who work to increase and improve philanthropy and social impact investing:

• CIRIEC Congress, 30 May – 1 June ‘The public, social and cooperative economy in the digital revolution’

This event has received financial support from the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation "EaSI" (2014-2020). For further information, please consult: