Laboratorul de solidaritate


: Jan 9, 2019


Looking for Partnership Looking for Consultant Looking for Extra EU Funds
About Me

Laboratorul de Solidaritate (Solidarity Lab) is an organization specialized in research, training, and hands-on support for social & cooperative enterprise development, social and economic inclusion, including financial inclusion and local economic strategic development. It groups researchers and trainers with extensive experience in these fields. The Association has 3 permanent staff members and works with other researchers and trainers on a project ; The Association’s experts  have conducted projects to support start-up and incubation of social enterprises and cooperatives, including agricultural marketing cooperatives mainly in rural areas of Romania, advises regularly social economy organisations in Romania, credit unions, work integration social enterprises and cooperatives, has assisted various local governments for strategic planning of local development and territorial  socio-economic diagnosis including through participatory methodologies, involving marginalized communities, and has also run community development courses and facilitation of  stakeholder participation in socially responsible ;

Currently we implement FinCare a project to develop adult education instruments of the credit unions - financial cooperative education and social governance of credit unions to allow credit unions in Romania to improve their staff skills and the quality of their learning materials through cooperation with well established partners in UK and Italy that have extensive experience. Also we are organising the 7th CIRIEC International Research Conference on Social Economy to be held in Bucharest in June 2019 - Theme 2 of the conference is  – Role of social economy in providing sustainable livelihoods in rural areas and in food sustainability, sovereignty and ;This section of the Conference will include papers on food sustainability, sovereignty and access – role of farmers and consumers in the agri-food chain governance, farmers and consumers cooperatives and new rural movements. Agricultural markets and farming have changed considerably over the last decades and agricultural production faces increasing social and environmental challenges. Family farms are a central element of rural livelihoods yet their viability is under threat, many not economically viable, and farmers, important strategic and economic players in the food supply chain, often working independently of each other, with little collective bargaining power to help them defend their interests against other parts of the chain, such as food processors and ; Papers are expected to investigate ways in which cooperation contributes to securing the future of the rural livelihoods, facing difficulties such as small farm size, fragmentation of landholdings, ageing farm population & lack of new entrants. Successes and failures in the co-operative farming model may be investigated and factors explaining ways they use to overcome some of these constraints to growth. Various relationships between producers and consumers taking forms of organizations in the social and solidarity economy may be investigated and their role in dealing with today’s challenges of food poverty / access, sustainability and ultimately sovereignty, as well as the role of co-operatives and social enterprises in providing access to services and goods for people in rural and small, isolated areas and communities.

We cooperate with various European Universities engaged in social economy and cooperative enterprises in Romania and EU - mainly University of Bucharest Faculty of Sociology, National School of Political and Administrative Studies Faculty of Management, University of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences in Bucharest, John Moore University in Liverpool, University of Almeria, National Union of Credit Unions in Romania, Union of Agricultural Cooperatives in Romania.

Interested in 

- Sustainable agriculture and forestry

- Sustainable and competitive agri-food sector for a safe and healthy diet

Keywords and matching areas:

 Agriculture
 Agrifood
 Forest Resources
 Rural Development
 Social Farming
 Clusters
 Microfinance
 Web-Entrepreneurship
 Adult Learning
 Higher Education

Ideas in Progress

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