Conférence INAISE
en partenariat avec Integra Foundation

La finance sociale en mouvement
Bratislava, Slovaquie 2-3-4 juin 2004 -

Rapport de la conférence (en anglais)

Photos de la conférence

Liste des documents disponibles

INAISE Conference Report by Paul Gosling

This year’s annual INAISE Conference - held in Bratislava - was an undoubted success.
Delegates attended not just from across Europe, West and East, but also from other regions including the United States and Japan.

That greater internationalisation of INAISE and of the social finance movement was the continuing theme of the conference. INAISE President Frans de Clerck told the conference that whereas INAISE had in the past been mostly orientated to Europe, its future objective was to operate globally.

De Clerck said: " has made a decision to expand worldwide." Discussions are taking place to expand social finance into the Philippines, India and Japan.

James Nicholas Harisson - legal advisor on social finance to the Council of Europe - also had good news for the conference.
After prolonged consultation, the Council of Europe has developed in its own definition for what it has chosen to term ‘social solidarity finance’. As far as the Council is concerned this has three strands: finance for fair trade, finance for responsible consumerism and ethical finance, which includes investment in the social economy.

Harisson explained that working definitions varied enormously in different countries, while there were no legal definitions in most countries. Later this year the Council will launch a platform for its endorsement of social solidarity finance, which it hopes will lead to further expansion of the sector.

“There are many different investment initiatives in Europe and many more outside,” reported Harisson.
“Europe is a fantastic laboratory for learning from social solidarity finance. There are so many different ways of doing things."

Greater knowledge by the public would lead to greater participation in social solidarity finance. Options to promote the sector which the Council may consider endorsing include labelling systems, business accreditation and tax and other incentives to increase capacity and supply. Harrison raised the possible need for a European observatory to assist politicians, officials and practitioners to be aware of the constant flow of developments in the sector.

link to James Harisson’s paper (pdf file)

Severine Deboos of the International Labour Organisation’s Office for Central and Eastern Europe told the conference that social finance could play an important role in the creation of ‘decent work’, in particular for work as a route out of poverty.
Social finance, such as microfinance to create self-employment, is recognised by the ILO as an important means of tackling poverty. As part of this policy, the ILO is trying to integrate social finance more into its activities.

Concerns for the ILO in supporting social finance are gender, globalisation, work with migrant workers, the use of remittances by migrant workers and over-indebtedness.

The ILO’s Action Program in Industrialised Countries examined the application of social finance in creating work for the unemployed in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. This study reached a number of conclusions:

• Only 4% of the unemployed had the entrepreneurial spirit for self-employment
• 60% of those who entered self-employment through these schemes were still self-employed after three years
• Those who became self-employed were not significantly better-off financially than other people in waged work
• They worked longer hours
• They had a more positive outlook on life
• Most would do it again
• Social security support was an important factor in achieving an effective transition from unemployment to self-employment.

Other lessons could also be drawn, said Deboos, including that beneficiaries of such schemes needed non-financial support as well as finance; the size of schemes is limited by the number of people with the right attitude to gain from them; schemes can be very subsidy dependent; and that the schemes are cost-effective compared with other labour market policies.

link to Severine Deboos’ paper (Powerpoint presentation)

At the plenary, themes emerged which had been aired at conference workshops and discussions. There remains a challenging environment within which to operate. Even the terms of the debate are problematic and increasingly so as the social finance movement attempts to operate worldwide. The words ‘solidarity’ and ‘social’, for instance, have negative connotations for many citizens in the former Soviet bloc countries.

International regulation can unintentionally have severe impacts on the sector. Basel II is potentially damaging. It may be important for social finance institutions to increase international co-operation to confront problems and take advantage of opportunities.

There are many opportunities for the sector, which can be grasped by learning from international experience. In Italy the development of Banca Etica has been accompanied by increased cross-selling of socially-orientated products from fair trade shops.

Success for the movement brings new risks. As mainstream banks watch development, so they mimic certain parts of it. Social finance institutions must recognise the threat posed by mainstream banks, which may now seek to win some of the sector’s investor and borrower customers. It therefore remains important that true social finance institutions must continue to mark themselves out as different from the dominant banks and stay loyal to their principles.

At the same time social finance institutions must be aware that markets are dynamic and evolving and the institutions themselves must adapt to changing consumer expectations. In some cases, social finance institutions may choose to increase co-operation with NGOs.

While the conference was marked by good humour and friendship, some tensions between differing approaches were evident. These emerged from differences as to whether the sector should seek to be a provider of social finance in the long-term, or if it should act as a catalyst for changes in approach from the mainstream banking community. There were also evident differences in what social finance was and how it should be used. -

In winding-up the conference, President Frans de Clerck said: “Social finance will never become mainstream, but it will from time to time renew itself to enable it to challenge the major banks. We are talking about not just microfinance, but also about real social development.”

Download the report in pdf

Link to newsletter containing the conference report: Health magazine