Social and solidarity economy (SSE) stakeholders from across 32 countries in Africa and beyond are meeting in Cameroon to share practices, experiences, policies and visions towards building an inclusive, equitable and solidarity-based and people-centred Pan-African Movement.
This is at the inaugural edition of the African Social and Solidarity Economy Forum, FORA’ESS, holding at the Yaounde Conference Centre, from 28th to 30th May 2024.
Opening the session this 29th May, 2024, Cameroon’s Minister of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts, Achille Bassilekin highlighted the importance of social and solidarity economies in fighting poverty and improving living conditions.
The three-day event includes roundtables aimed at raising awareness amongst public institutions on SSE and the benefits for sustainable economic development.
This inaugural encounter will also be place to discuss the setting up of an African SSE multi-stakeholder platform.
It will also serve to provide a medium for exchanging and sharing ideas and systematising African SSE models.
The event includes three plenary sessions, several workshops and an exhibition fair on the courtyard of the Yaounde Conference Centre.
At the end of the conclave, three declarations are expected: the Yaounde Declaration, the Mayors’ Declaration and the Youth Declaration.
FORA’ESS, it should be noted, was birthed from the Global Social Economy Forum which held in June 2023 in Dakar, Senegal. It is expected to be held every two years.
Eleanor Ayuketah Ngochi
