On August 31st in Mexico City the forum took place SLAN COOPERATIVE: What is it like to be a young cooperative member in Latin America?, organized by the National Institute of Social Economy (INAES) and the Global Forum for Social and Solidarity Economy (GSEF), whose main objective was to learn how young people are building a more just and sustainable Latin America through the Social and Solidarity Economy.

The event took place as a reference for the way young people undertake collectively, just in the month in which the United Nations Organization declared the International Youth Day and because it is essential to place in the sights of all institutions in all countries of the Region the generation of actions and public policies in favor of youth, including their voices. 

In this regard, Aude Saldaña, executive secretary of the Global Forum for Social and Solidarity Economy (GSEF), pointed out that a similar global forum was held in Mexico in 2021 and one of the axes of that exercise was the construction of a strategy aimed at young people, based on a resolution by the United Nations and other agencies, which emphasized the importance of the social and solidarity economy as a mechanism for development and of cooperatives led mainly by young people as an alternative in which youth play an essential role in truly being able to impact, include and mobilize in favor of sustainable development. The central issue is to make inclusion visible in collective work where youth are definitely agents of development.

It was important to mention that Gsef is an international organization in which many countries and local governments collaborate, and that they have decided to create a specific youth area so that, in a transversal way, they influence all the actions of that organization in their decisions, with the objective that the voices of the youth are incorporated in every process, since for Gsef it is very important to incorporate the youth in all current and future decisions.

In his speech, Juan Manuel Martínez Louvier, general director of the National Institute of Social Economy (INAES-Mexico) and co-president of Gsef for Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighted the participation of the government of Mexico and the alliance established with Gsef since 2018. He recalled that it was at the request of Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum that Mexico City be the venue for the 2021 Global Forum on the Social Economy virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and that, despite this, the support of the Government of Mexico City allowed the Forum to become a great sounding board to seek the same interests and consolidate this alliance. 

He said that for INAES it is a conviction that cooperativism means more than a modality, it is a mechanism to do things in an intelligent way for the well-being of all. This is important today in view of the complexity of the world and the great challenges of the future in the field of work, the incorporation of technologies, the terrible economic inequality that has generated the business model that only seeks the profits of a few and not the well-being of many. He indicated that in the face of these great challenges, young people must speak out, to gain space to express how they want to do things. And, in the context of cooperativism, it is even more important to listen to their voices.

It is relevant because it is necessary to hear what it means to be a young person, a young cooperative member in Latin America, because it is essential to strengthen the idea that what young people are doing makes sense, has a future horizon for their aspirations, and the needs of their regions. She called for continuing to learn from each other.

In his turn, Juan Humberto Cerdio Vázquez, General Coordinator of Business Development and Promotion at INAES (Mexico), recounted that a few years ago a friend told him that he did not intend to talk or listen to anyone over 40 about the social and solidarity economy, but that those who should be talked to the most about the social and solidarity economy are those under 40, mainly young people, about this collective social economic model, as a new socioeconomic model that is more fair, equitable, inclusive and sustainable, which sees people and the Earth first, before capital, with the understanding that in the end the work of generating economic profitability goes through generating common well-being.

The important thing is not that young people listen to us, but that we listen to them, because we should be interested in what they have to say and what those of us over 40 can do with them, because now is not the time to think, it is time to act and this is what must be done if young people are to transform the world, to create an economic model different from the one called social and solidarity economy. To do this, innovation processes by young people are urgently needed so that they can be disruptive factors in generating new things every day, in a space where 3 elements converge: youth, innovation and social and solidarity economy.

At the end of the event, young people from the region were invited to join an international network to continue walking together and sharing ideas, challenges, skills and opportunities, in an environment of dialogue to continue building a community.

The main idea was to continue and that this type of exercise should not remain just another event, but rather to build a strategy for something much bigger and a force that involves the drive of young people.

The call was made to encourage the social economy in the region, for which this cooperative Slam highlighted the interest of leaders in encouraging the participation of young people, but also the interest in becoming the spokesperson for youth initiatives.

We continue to listen and work hand in hand with young people to promote that all the voices of youth are heard and are present with a transversal impact in each of the decisions that are made in each of the resolutions that have to do with the social and solidarity economy and everything that affects them.

It was agreed that there is a certain path, in which there are concrete experiences that illuminate other paths so that humanity can advance towards prosperity, sustainability and a shared humanity.

It was concluded that the goal is to build a more fair, equitable, inclusive and sustainable economic model and this moment and opportunity for this task is in the hands of the youth, to transform this world into a much better world.