The social solidarity economy refers to a variety of actors : formal and informal micro-enterprises and SMEs, credit, saving, and health insurance mutual funds, rural farmers’ associations and agricultural farmers’ cooperatives, development associations and NGOs, women’s and young people’s groups, nationals and migrants associations, handicraft and art-based associations, traders and industrialists’ unions, community radios…

For social solidarity economy networks, RIPESS is the appropriate framework for.

Increasing value and spreading out innovative experiences (under the format of written and visual supports…)
National, continental and intercontinental networking
Establishing links relationships and exchanging experiences
Advocacy and lobbying for the recognition of new skills and for adopting new qualitative development indicators
Information, documentation and technical support provided by a wide range of international resourceful people.

Promoting a network-type action by:

Voluntary pooling of grassroots actors’ resources
Solidarity and ethics in entrepreneurship
Social creativity and skills networking, expertise and practice
Positive influence on public policies and on international regulation bodies.

The Dakar 2005 was a unique opportunity for the social solidarity economy operators:

To globalize in solidarity initiatives of economic justice;
To make suggestion regarding the recognition of successful practices
To establish international alliances in order to increase the influence of social operators on supra-national public policies
To map a political outline for the social solidarity economy project (alternative society project).