Social economy

In its widest sense, the social economy can be defined as the set of activities by citizens that contributes to the democratisation of the economy. The social economy is another term for what people in both the northern and southern hemispheres have started calling economic initiatives with a social purpose.

It is generally agreed that the unifying characteristics of the social economy lie in the purpose of the productive activity and in the internal organisation of the businesses concerned.

These two elements are also found in the definition of the Walloon Council for the Social Economy from 1990, reproduced in the Strategic Paper on the Social Economy in Belgian Cooperation in 2002.

The social economy includes the economic activities of mainly cooperative businesses, health funds and associations, whose ethics are based on the following principles :

• The aim is not so much to make a profit as to serve the members or the community

• Organisational autonomy

• Democratic decision-making processes

• People and work take precedence over capital in the distribution of revenue.

The same Strategic Paper defines Belgian cooperation work in the area of the social economy on the basis of three main principles, participation, reinforcement of capacities and appropriation, and three priority fields, micro-health insurance, microfinance and fair trade.

Being regarded as both a specific field and an overarching theme, the social economy is featured in various forms in numerous projects from our portfolio currently being carried out.

Micro-health insurance

Out of the many projects in BTC's health portfolio, nearly a third involve initiatives in the ‘social health economy', the purpose of which is generally to facilitate access to care by introducing complementary funding systems such as mutual health insurance schemes, prepayment schemes, equity funds and so on.

Microfinance

Although few direct bilateral cooperation projects specifically relate to this field, it is without a doubt the channel via which most funding is provided across all types of cooperation work (indirect, multilateral and Belgian Survival Fund). Work in this area relates to the microfinancing sector as a whole and its institutions, involving support of both a financial (loans, subsidies, guarantee funds, etc.) and non-financial nature (institutional reinforcement, improvement of the regulatory framework and of effectiveness, etc.).

Fair trade

Although no specific work in this area is currently being carried out in BTC's direct bilateral projects, BTC implements the new programme of the Fair Trade Centre to promote fair trade in Belgium.