The social and solidarity economy in the latin american integration agenda

the path to sustainable development

Abstract

The South American context of the first decade of the 21st century enabled the emergence of various initiatives related to the Social and Solidarity Economy (ESS) in the region’s integration schedule. In general, such initiatives were presented as responses to the crises provoked by the neoliberal model imposedon the populations of these countries at the endof the previous century. The ESS perspective was incorporated in thesearch for solutions and, together with the establishment of regional strategies and institutions focused on the social dimension of development, it represented na important step for wardin the sense of offering contributions to the efforts to promote alternatives in the societies of these countries. At the same time, the development agendas proposed by international organizations reinforced the initiatives established in the regionand provided goals and indicators for thei mplemented public policies. The multilateral strategy proposed by the UN establishes the 2030 Schedule, where SSE initiatives can serve as relevant tools toachieve these goals; further more, regional integration emerges as na important strategy in this situation. Basedon the above, this work proposalaimsto analyze the contemporary processes of Latin American integration fromt he SSE, high lighting the possibilities and challenges of this perspective for achieving sustainable development.