Boosting Social Enterprise Development
Good Practice Compendium
Social enterprises are long-standing agents of inclusive growth and democratisation of the economic and social spheres, and they have proved resilient to economic adversity all the while addressing socio-economic challenges in innovative ways, re-integrating people back to the labour market, and contributing to overall social cohesion. This compendium derives policy lessons for boosting social enterprises from the analysis of 20 initiatives in several EU member-countries, covering a range of policy areas from legal frameworks, finance, market access, and support structures, to education and skills.
Barcelona City Council Decree for Socially Responsible Public Procurement
The Barcelona City Council Decree for Socially Responsible Public Procurement was designed to tackle the city’s increasing unemployment, in particular of people with the most pressing socio-economic needs. Through a participatory process, binding social clauses for public procurement contracts were developed and adopted to facilitate social enterprises’ access to market. This initiative describes the Decree’s objectives and rationale, as well as its features. It presents the challenges faced in developing and implementing the Decree, and the impact it has achieved so far. It also includes lessons learnt and conditions for transferring this practice to another context.