Dakar opens the African Forum for the Social and Solidarity Economy this Tuesday

The Senegalese capital is hosting, from this Tuesday, July 7 and until July 9, the African Forum for the Social and Solidarity Economy (FORAESS Dakar 2026). Placed under the theme “Social and solidarity economy: engine of transition, inclusion and convergence in Africa”, this meeting will bring together nearly 250 participants from 33 countries in Africa and elsewhere, around the issues linked to the development of a more inclusive and united economy.

The event aims to structure an alternative economic development model for Africa through several axes such as promoting inclusion by placing women and young people at the heart of the microeconomic fabric, providing responses to mass unemployment and sectoral informality, developing the collective: Encouraging self-employment via solidarity productive cooperatives and innovating in financing: Bringing together microfinance policies and the ESS to generate high-impact investments

This Monday, July 6, Dr Alioune Dione opened the Women’s Pre-forum, organized as a prelude to this event. For the minister, this meeting has a particular meaning which once again marks the desire of the State of Senegal to actively contribute to the strengthening and consolidation of this African vision of the social and solidarity economy based on solidarity, cooperation and inclusion.

Dr Alioune Dione also welcomed the existence of a dedicated institutional framework and an ambitious national strategy aimed at making the social and solidarity economy a driver of economic and social transformation of territories.

As a reminder, FORAESS was officially presented on June 6 in Diamniadio during a ceremony chaired by Alioune Dione. In his speech, the minister underlined the strategic importance of this international meeting, believing that it confirms the vitality of the African movement of the social and solidarity economy.