Social Economy Ukraine is a newly launched umbrella organization that aims to build a network and develop the social economy ecosystem. The organisation’ areas of activity are policy development, research and data collection, networking among social economy enterprises and organizations, and attracting investments in the social economy sector in Ukraine. Social Economy Ukraine is the social economy’s reference point at the Ukrainian level and a bridge for integrating the Ukrainian social economy with the EU one.
Ukraine has a long history of social economy entrepreneurship, with over 15,000 co-operatives operating in the country in the early 20th century in areas such as forestry, agriculture and banking, all working “for the social purposes of preserving and developing culture, schooling [and] inclusion”. A local development model, driven by citizens that was ‘erased’ by the soviet invasion in 1919. After its independence in 1991, and the Maidan revolution in 2014, the country experienced a renewed dynamism of social economy initiatives.
Petro Darmoris, director and Founder of Social Economy Ukraine, says: “There is a special role for the social economy in Ukraine in times of war and a period of reconstruction. So, our primary objective now is to support all the social economy actors who are working for job creation, providing social services, and social & economic reintegration of displaced and other vulnerable individuals who suffer from war. We also believe that the social economy is the future of Ukraine’s economy. One of our priorities is gathering all the stakeholders and elaborating on the Social Economy Action Plan for Ukraine”.
Petro Darmoris has already been invited to participate in several events last year, among them the European Conference “The Social Economy, the Future of Europe” (Strasbourg, may 2022), and the first anniversary of the European Social Economy Action Plan and tenth anniversary of Social Economy Europe (SEE) on 7 December at the European Parliament in Brussels.
