In industrialised countries, social economy enterprises today also play a very active role
in integrating the excluded who would otherwise be on social assistance and offering
them hope and dignity while contributing to wealth creation. In the North and the South,
they are also helping to recognise and structure occupations within the informal
economy as a first step towards creating decent work.
In many ways, these collective enterprises set an example for the traditional private
sector by demonstrating the possibility of reconciling economic and social objectives in
the process of enterprise development. In many developing countries, where
governments lack the necessary resources to offer basic health and education services
and where private investment is cruelly absent, the social and solidarity economy
represents one of the only available strategies to create new economic activity through
citizen mobilisation and community empowerment