APAY Regional Workshop on Social Economy
Last Updated (Monday, 22 July 2013 17:39)
The APAY Regional Workshop on Social Economy was held in Seoul, Korea during 27th to 30th June 2013. The National Council of Korea hosted the workshop. Twelve delegates representing various YMCA movements from the region of Asia and Pacific participated at the workshop. The workshop was inaugurated by Dr. Song In Dong, Vice President of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs, while Dr. Ahn Jae Woong and Mr. Nam Boo Won, President and National General Secretary respectively, of the National Council of YMCAs of Korea welcomed all the participants. The immediate Past President of APAY, Dr. Park, Jai Chang and APAY General Secretary Mr. Kohei Yamada spoke at the opening ceremony.
The speakers in the opening ceremony explained the rationale for the involvement of the YMCA in social economy. Soon after the WWII, poverty became the key global issue, various poverty alleviation programs were taken by the governments and civil society organizations for the upliftment of the poor, but in reality, all these programs miserably failed to meet the aspirations of the people, the gap between the rich and the poor widened more and more. The ever growing number of unemployed youth affected the society very much. The YMCAs had been involved in various poverty alleviation programs and also been exploring various ways and means to address the issue of poverty, the search for alternative approaches to enrich the lives of common people continued. In Korea the YMCA has been one of the pioneers to introduce various social enterprises, especially the cooperatives, aiming for the economic emancipation of the people at the grass roots. Study of these successful economic models could inspire the YMCAs to be involved in introducing various social enterprises in the YMCAs as an effective tool for economic emancipation of the people.
The key note address of the workshop was delivered by Dr. Young-Geun Kwon, Vice President of Korean Institute for Study of Rural Societies. The theme of his paper was, “Association, the current movement and prospect of social economy.” The panel presentations were, (i) “Institutional Changes on Social Enterprise Promotion Act, Cooperatives Act and etc”. byMrHyuk-Jin Choi, Director of Infrastruction Formation HQ Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency. (ii) “Flux on social economy activities on local governments” by Mr. Chang-Bok Yoo, CEO, Seoul Maeul Community Supporting Center. (iii) “Flux on Korean Consumer Cooperative Activites” by Ms. Hyung-Mi Kim, Executive Director, iCoop Institute and finally (iv) “Flux on activities on self-support, cooperatives and social enterprise” by Mr. Byung-Hak Lee, Chief of Gyeonggi Self-Supporting Center.
During the workshop the participants had the opportunity to visit the Cooperative Social Economy Network in Wonju and visit various social enterprises in the city in their exposure program. These included high schools, nursery schools and other village social enterprises and also one of the flagship social enterprise programs of the National Council of YMCAs of Korea, the Café Timor, the Peace Coffee Project.
The participants learnt more about the YMCA initiatives in social enterprises, Mr. Ki-Hyun Kim, General Secretary of Bucheon YMCA shared about the Lighthouse Consumer Cooperatives. Mr. Kyung Min Kim, General Secretary of Daegu YMCA shared the “Hope Bike Production” the bicycle movement and also the project of recycling of bicycles, the trend setting of art bike and the bike theatre, which made bicycling more and more popular in the city. He also shared about his experience of creating a park for the people, using maximum manual labor to be more people oriented and this has been one of the attractions of the city as being transformed to natural habitat of various species of animals.
Ms. Jeong-Hee Lee, General Secretary of Guri YMCA shared about her experience in forming cooperatives as a YMCA response to redress the economic crisis in Korea, create employment and work for the economic welfare of the people.
Mr. Peter Burns, CEO of Victoria YMCA, Australia shared about the social enterprises of Victoria YMCA, the Bridges Project, empowering the youths in this half way home for job creation after the completion of their terms in the prisons. The Project PRISM was also an example of social enterprise, where the YMCA involves with the aim to train thousands of kids to know the art of swimming, to avoid the danger of drowning, which is one of the common threats for kids in Australia.
On the final day the participants were engaged in discovering an effective working definition of social enterprise applicable for the YMCA and also involved in working out an effective policy for nurturing social enterprises in the YMCAs for the benefit of the people.
The Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs expresses their gratitude to the National Council of Korea for hosting this event and do aspire to continue working for more involvement of the YMCAs of our region in social economy.