World Day of Social Justice, 20 February 2026
In his 2024 report to the Human Rights Council on Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights identified the social and solidary economy (SSE) as a key driver of the transition from a growth-dependent, profit-driven economy to a human rights economy centred on well-being within planetary boundaries.
The Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth – a set of beyond growth policy proposals for poverty eradication being developed by a growing alliance of UN agencies, civil society, unions and academic experts – presents the development of the SSE as a core policy area for meaningful economic transformation.
Now, a new joint policy brief, prepared by the Special Rapporteur, the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE) and the International Labour Organization-led Global Coalition for Social Justice, offers a deep dive into the ways in which the SSE can advance the objectives of the Roadmap by supporting the eradication of poverty beyond growth.
The brief details how SSE entities – including cooperatives, mutual societies and social enterprises – contribute to decent work, care, more equitable resource distribution, workplace participation and gender equity, and climate resilience. It identifies practical policy levers that governments, development partners and multilateral institutions can mobilise to support the SSE and move beyond growth-centred models.
The joint policy brief was published on the occasion of the World Day of Social Justice (20 February 2026), and presented by the Special Rapporteur and Simel Esim, Head of the Cooperative, Social and Solidarity Economy Unit (ILO) and Chair of the UNTFSSE, at a public conference on the SSE in Turin, Italy.
Read the full policy brief: Advancing a human rights economy through the social and solidarity economy: Pathways to the eradication of poverty beyond growth
“The SSE encompasses enterprises, organizations and other entities that are engaged in economic, social and environmental activities to serve the collective and/or general interest, which are based on the principles of voluntary cooperation and mutual aid, democratic and/or participatory governance, autonomy and independence and the primacy of people and social purpose over capital in the distribution and use of surpluses and/or profits as well as assets.” ILO 2022
