NEWS

         

More than one year after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, pre-existing challenges and inequalities are still getting worse, particularly in relation to poor access to adequate housing, public and green spaces, services and infrastructure. To respond to these challenges, numerous local and regional governments, institutions and urban leaders have called for new partnerships that create more inclusive, resilient and prosperous metropolitan communities.

In April, Metropolis—as part of a consortium of 16 partners led by UpSocial and Ashoka—won the Respond Rebuilt Reinvent (RRR) project, which is part of the OECD’s “Promoting Social and Solidarity Economy Ecosystems” Global Action funded by the European Union. The RRR project explores how Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) ecosystems can play a critical role in helping local authorities respond to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 outbreak, and for recovery. Understood as a “concept designating enterprises and organizations (...) which have the specific feature of producing goods, services and knowledge while pursuing both economic and social aims and fostering solidarity” (ILO), the SSE, through social innovation, can play a crucial role in the search for a stronger, fairer, greener, and more inclusive recovery.

The project aims to raise awareness and increase the capacity to build national and local ecosystems that are conducive to SSE development, while promoting knowledge exchange and transfer between peers at an international level.

As part of this project, a Call for Peer Cities was organised last month to select the cities that will be participating in the exchanges. After a thorough evaluation process, Metropolis members Belo Horizonte, Montréal and Guadalajara were chosen to join the project, alongside Bilbao, Dublin, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Turin and Warsaw. Throughout the selection process, special attention was given to the policies, programmes and activities implemented by the governments in these cities to enhance SSE ecosystems and promote and improve cross-sectoral collaboration.

Over the next few months, and with the support of a team of acclaimed expert partners from SSE organisations, leading universities and research organisations, the chosen cities will be guided through the process of:

1. Deepening their understanding of SSE ecosystems in their territory.
2. Defining the challenges that need to be tackled in a cross-sectoral, collaborative approach.
3. Exploring solutions and social innovations.
4. Experimenting on how to adopt these solutions.

The outcomes of these processes and the results of the RRR project will be presented during the OECD’s 1st conference for the Global Action “The Social and Solidarity Economy: From the Margins to the Mainstream”, which will take place in September 2021.

For more information about this project, please contact Guillaume Berret from the Metropolis Secretariat General.