In recent years, academia, policy-makers and other types of actors have increased their interest in social and environmental issues, prioritizing them over profits. This trend is also illustrated by the increasing number of governments that are steering their economic relations and activities in order to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.

Social and Inclusive Economy is a sustainable mean of inclusive economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. It has a great potential to facilitate innovative and sustainable solutions for the economic, social and environmental issues, address the root causes of exclusive and unsustainable development and ultimately contribute to realizing the transformative vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Regardless of strong tendencies, the representation of Social Economy around the world is not sufficiently stabilized, institutionalized and systematized, hindering the actors to scale up, despite the existing networks. Thus, it is imperative to co-construct strong public policies, together with social enterprises, their representatives, public and private organizations, in order to foster an inclusive development, defined by the 2030 Agenda.

The main objective of this panel is to illustrate how reinforcing cooperation between public and private actors tends not only to address better the needs and challenges of territories, through social innovations, but is also a key-solution into reaching the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

Originally initiated by private actors, Impact Investing is a financial and social innovation, which disrupts the existing boundaries between philanthropy and the classic forms of investment. Impact Investing mainly targets investments intending to generate social and/or environmental impact, while creating a financial return. This sector is currently undergoing a full expansion, representing about 502 billion dollars of financial assets, not to forget that the climatic urgency and the SDGs financing plan tend to accelerate its development.

Is this new generation of investments able to revolutionize the world of finance… not to say the world economy? In the current state of social initiatives, what is the most efficient and transparent way to support the development of the financial sector? What collaboration with the public sector and other financial actors? This panel, composed of high-level speakers, will give an insight on these questions, and more.

The multiple social, ecological and demographical challenges we are currently undergoing are urging us to find innovative and adequate answers, in order to overtake the traditional cleavages between the social, private and public sector. More than ever before, the various actors must come up with new forms of collaboration, and build what makes them stronger together, rather than highlighting their differences.

By creating a real space for discussion amongst all actors, putting aside all existing prejudices, and fostering a cross-sectoral collaboration, notably by highlighting the public sector’s role as a core driver of alliances, it will be possible to create innovative models, relying on the strengths of each stakeholder. Such exchanges are an ideal opportunity to build the core foundations of a performant, strong and sustainable economy for all.

Technology can act as an accelerator and a concrete driver for companies to build a sustainable economy, but they can also harmfully affect the state of the economy.

> How to support Social and Inclusive Economy actors to face the numerical transition?
> How to encourage private and public funding for a strong Research & Development?
> How to prevent and avoid the tech social washing of economic actors?
> Do we have solid examples of Tech for (real) Good?

This session will explore these issues with the support of entrepreneurs who will present their case.

Pact for Impact, as a concrete and global Alliance, offers all actors the opportunity to build together a pledge that puts Social and Inclusive Economy at the heart of the international agenda. How will this Alliance design a roadmap, as well as propose concrete commitments? How will it facilitate the sharing of experiences between all parties? How to make this Alliance beneficial for all actors around the world?

These questions, amongst others, will further be discussed in this session, with governmental representatives, international organizations, private and public actors and SSE experts, in order to build together the groundwork for the Alliance Pact for Impact.

Through a stronger and more precise definition of the institutional framework in which the private sector and NGOs can develop themselves, the public sector plays a key role in developing the Social and Inclusive Economy. While some countries enjoy a strong legal framework in the field of the SSE, other countries never adopted such laws.

What normative evolutions and institutional frameworks could allow a strong a methodic development, at various levels, of the SSE?

Given the multiple challenges of our society, youth, together with educational institutions, are engaged in the path of development, innovation, social economy and progress, thus inspiring a profound transformation of the current political dynamics, all over the world. In fact, all these actors are currently reinforcing their cooperation, while getting more and more committed into reaching the SDGs (employment, gender equality, ecological transition, health, education, etc.), via innovative, sustainable and inclusive solutions, addressing the major socio-economic challenges of today’s world.

In this regard, universities currently play a fundamental role, as privileged partners of territories on social, economic and environmental aspects, not only contributing to innovation through research, but also enabling the implementation of socially responsible and impactful projects, always including SSE partners.

Both at national and international levels, methods and indicators of social impact remain difficult to grasp by most of social enterprises. This can be explained by practical reasons (e.g. their high cost), as well as their complexity, making such methods hard to apply. Some social enterprises fear that the measure of social impact serves as a tool of accountability for investors, instead of constituting a real instrument to demonstrate a concrete benefit and help companies enhance their performance.

Although the evaluation and measurement of social impact is a difficult task, it remains feasible. Numerous rules and principles tend to harmonize such practices, and many metrics are still developing. However, it remains more important than ever, to support a culture of evaluation and measurement of social impact, while always making sure that appropriate financial resources and training opportunities are provided.

Ministries, development banks, philanthropy actors, cooperative and ethical banks, microfinance and crowdfunding institutions, incubators of social and solidarity businesses, local governments, « new finance » engineers: these key players will discuss the implementation of strategic financial alliances, set to transform our economies.

Together, they will elaborate on the architecture of the ecosystem of funds and players, required to both respond to identified needs and support the deployment and integration of new generations of financial models; at all scales of action: from local to global, according to domestic environments, and through inclusive, social and solidarity reinforcement of value chains and sectors.