Fostering the Sustainable Development Goals from an Ecosystem Conducive to the SE: The Galician’s Case

Abstract

The special alignment of the principles and effects of the social economy (SE) with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) renders this area especially suitable for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of these goals, favoring a paradigm shift towards a new economic system that reconciles growth and sustainability. In this context, governments and institutions can moderate or accelerate this path, with the implementation of a series of policies to promote and drive the social economy. In Spain, responsibility for the design and implementation of such policies is transferred to sub-central governments, known as autonomous communities. Galicia is the first Spanish autonomous community to have its own Act on SE. This article explains the promotion strategy established in this region, which has resulted in an ecosystem favorable to the development and consolidation of the Galician SE, based on a combination of public policies with synergistic effects. The outcome of this ecosystem could have a significant impact on the achievement of several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the promotion of equal opportunities (SDG 5), the promotion of decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), and the reduction of inequalities (SDG 10).

Female Entrepreneurship: Can Cooperatives Contribute to Overcoming the Gender Gap? A Spanish First Step to Equality

“…In recent years, cooperatives have noticeably expanded where, surprisingly, many other businesses collapsed during the worst period of the financial crisis [3]. In addition, an increasing number of women are engaging in cooperatives, to the extent that the percentage of women in the workforce of these organizations surpasses by far that of women in the workforce as a whole [4,5]. This issue has grown in importance considering previous research showing that business entrepreneurs are twice as likely to be male, while numbers of male and female social entrepreneurs were similar [6,7].…”

Convergences between the Social and Solidarity Economy and Sustainable Development Goals: Case Study in the Basque Country

“…Our results are consistent with many other studies: (i) in the first international conference on SDGs and SSE, held in Geneva in 2019 and sponsored by UNRISD, SDGs 5, 8, and 12 appeared as the most concurrent among experiences from around the world [9]; (ii) a research study among social enterprises in Spain also showed that the SDGs to which they thought they contributed most were numbers 8, 4, 5, and 12 [24]; (iii) at the local level as well, Bastida et al [14], in this issue of Sustainability, present SDGs 5, 8 as the more common.…”

“…This often happens in local territorialized contexts, since location and geographical and cultural embeddedness is one typical characteristic of many of these experiences. In that sense, they can have a better awareness of environmental sustainability issues because they live in the very same territory and are directly affected [14].…”

“…There are still few articles addressing the links between SSE and SDGs in case studies based on real experiences, and each of them sets out from different approaches, focuses, or objects of study [9][10][11][12][13][14]. So, we are contributing to the literature with one more case that involves a novel approach with its particular characteristics regarding the initiatives under study.…”

“…So, we are contributing to the literature with one more case that involves a novel approach with its particular characteristics regarding the initiatives under study. With respect to the initiatives that are the object of the analysis, some studies focus solely on enterprises [12,13], others on public policies or the general regulatory framework [14], while we look at the link between both of them-that is to say, local SSE specific public policies with the direct participation of enterprises in co-governance projects. Furthermore, our case brings together different kinds of enterprises: from traditional industrial cooperatives to different kinds of social enterprises, including work integration social enterprises (WISEs).…”