Presse release - 24 October 2005

 

The second edition of the Mont Blanc Meetings will take place on 4, 5 and 6 November near Annecy, France, and should see the number of participants double. Around a hundred leaders of organisations from the social economy from every continent are expected to attend this second international summit. In spring 2004 there were around fifty of them along with academics, politicians, representatives of international institutions and citizens’ movements.

Initiated by the heads of four companies in the French social economy (the Macif, the Groupe Chèque Déjeuner, the Groupe Crédit Coopératif and Esfin-Ides), these international meetings are designed to enable leaders from the social economy to get to know each other better end encourage the emergence and networking of concrete joint projects. Leaders from the social economy want to participate actively in a form of internationalisation which will foster human progress, developing the economy and human rights, encouraging collective private initiatives in all fields of activity, focusing on people and not on capital.

 

The three days of this second summit will alternate between the exploration and the development of projects. The participation of speakers such as Zaki Laïdi – a researcher at the Centre d’Etudes et Recherches Internationales, Paul Singer – national secretary for the solidarity economy in Brazil, and Ivano Barberini - President of the International Cooperative Alliance, is expected.

 

In line with their commitments, since 2004 the participants have launched concrete projects (on social money, pension funds, social economy development funds, among others), and further projects will be chosen during these next meetings.

 

These meetings will be the highpoint in the organisation of a genuine forum for consultation, exchanges of experiences and practices for leaders in the social economy from all continents, both north and south.

 

 

 

Contacts:

Thierry Jeantet – Co-organiser of the Mont Blanc Meetings, Director General of Euresa

tel.: (33)-1 45 74 08 56

Jean-Philippe Poulnot – Co-organiser of the Mont Blanc Meetings, Head of the Research and Development at the Groupe Chèque Déjeuner

tel.: (33)-1 41 85 08 53

 

The social economy: a worldwide reality – some figures

 

According to the International Cooperative Alliance, more than 3 billion people are concerned around the world by agricultural, fishing, industrial, consumer, and credit cooperatives … i.e. 750 000 cooperatives with more than 775 000 000 members.

 

The International Mutual Association has shown that in the sector of health and providence are large number of people worldwide are mutualists. For example, in Southern Africa, there are 7 000 000 mutualists spread between 152 mutual societies; in the Ivory Coast, one mutual has 420 000 beneficiaries; in Latin America, there are 1 300 000 mutualists in Argentina, Columbia and Uruguay. In Europe, health mutuals are particularly present in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland. They are being recreated in countries such as Poland and Slovenia.

The association and charity sector is more difficult to estimate quantitatively. The most visible part is made up of NGOs working in humanitarian aid, the environment, health, education and religion.