MANILA, Philippines - The Asian Solidarity Economy Council (ASEC) Philippines has launched its ‘Solidarity Project’ to link micro and small producers to organized consumer groups. The Solidarity Project may also encourage Filipino professionals and college graduates to rethink their future and become social entrepreneurs instead of being employees of multinational corporations.
This was the main gist of the first foundation anniversary and general assembly of ASEC Philippines held recently at the University of the Philippines (UP) Institute for Small Scale Industries (ISSI) at the UP campus, Diliman, Quezon City attended by its executives, members, business associates, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), micro & small entrepreneurs, and community-based solidarity consumer clubs.
ASEC Philippines is a non-profit organization established by social innovators and social entrepreneurs to promote Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) in the Philippines. ASEC Philippines undertakes capacity-building of value chains of SSE enterprises, SSE mapping, and networking between producer and consumer groups. It was founded a year ago by ASEC Philippines president and chief executive officer (CEO) Benjamin Quiñones Jr., an outstanding alumnus awardee of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, with the support of long-time friends like Cielito Habito, former NEDA chief and concurrently head of a donor-funded development project in Mindanao, and columnist of Philippine Daily Inquirer, former Quezon City Mayor Brigido Simon Jr., and Wyden King, president & CEO of Armadillo Holdings Inc.
Partner SSE organizations of ASEC Philippines include APPEND Inc., Center for Positive Futures (CPF), Life Learning Organization of Peace (LLOop), and the Federation of People’s Sustainable Development Cooperatives (FPSDC).