Conference Agenda

Introduction

In response to the growing calls for a just transition towards environmentally sustainable and inclusive economies and societies for all, organisations in the social and solidarity economy (SSE) can play a vital role in ensuring decent work and universal social protection, addressing prevailing inequalities and vulnerabilities, and achieving progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite the potential of the SSE, our understanding of these innovative institutions and their leveraging role in this just transition remains comparatively opaque. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, this paper proposes a conceptual model that identifies how the SSE might effectively contribute to specific SDG targets, particularly those related to decent work and to the informal economy.

Research Question

How can the contribution of social and solidarity economy organisations (SSEOs) to global development frameworks (the SDGs) and the Decent Work

Agenda (DWA) be made more effective, impactful and visible?

Contribution

This paper presents a conceptual model and an accompanying tool to systematically identify and evaluate the synergies and complementarities between the four dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social, environmental and institutional), the four pillars of decent work (jobs, protection, dialogue, rights), and the four functions of the SSE (economic opportunities, social security, societal empowerment, environmental protection). This then helps to identify SSE-pertinent SDG targets, and to determine which types of organizations in the SSE are best suited to contribute to specific SDG targets, in particular those that address decent work deficits in the informal econoimy. This conceptual model and its accompanying tool represent an original contribution to knowledge of theoretical and practical

applicability.

Methodology

This paper is wholly conceptual.

Findings

This paper is based on a wider study that critically examines and assesses the role of the SSE in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Decent Work Agenda. We conclude that the SSE’s potential to contribute to sustainable development and decent work in Africa is far from being fully harnessed, for the reason that most policy-makers, researchers and practitioners lack cognizance of the existence and agency of member-based organizations that constitute the SSE.

This paper examines the experiences and challenges of female social sellers in Nigeria, including how they gain online skills, who they turn to for safety, and how both are regulated. “Social selling” -- informal selling through Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter and other means -- is an increasingly attractive means of income generation for women, given relatively low barriers to access. However, unlike on dedicated digital platforms, such as Jumia or Uber where training is provided and safety intended to some extent, on social media, neither is clear. Many of the skills learned (included on how to protect oneself) are either on the job, or learned through private institutions and individuals (influencers who train others and so on).

The research draws on 50 interviews with experts and female social sellers across Nigeria, as part of research conducted on platform livelihoods and women in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria for Mastercard Foundation. We explore what regulation of social selling, including safety and training, currently looks like and what sellers feel it should cover.

How are courses regulated, in terms of content, method, pricing and so on? Second, how is behaviour online between vendors and customers regulated? Do women sellers find protection from social media platforms? What form does that regulation take? How are payments honoured and sellers protected (and the opposite, how are customers protected from scammers?). We look at the current Nigerian landscape as well as the role of these social media giants to understand what these spaces look like for female sellers.