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1.
Introduction
The social and solidarity economics (SSE) is a field of growing importance in the agenda of discussions and practices, in the governmental context of public policies in their several instances, in multilateral organizations and among researchers in the area (Morais, 2013). The SSE is an emerging response to reclaim the market for social ends. In other words, the SSE creates networks among enterprises in an economy that aims to focus on social issues and gives moral purpose, environmental focus and democratic character to capital (Dash, 2014).
As Paul Singer says:
Social and Solidarity Economics refers to collective practices of sustainable development that contribute to building a more just and egalitarian world [...] by linking economy to society, local to global, labor to investment, and production, consumption, and the environment (quoted in ILO, 2012, p. 2).
Both India and Brazil are a tremendous source of innovations in SSE by which local communities rebuild their fractured lives, regenerate the local economy, restore their social fabric and ensure social protection within a solidarity-based framework as a pathway to a more democratic, sustainable and better future. A large part of these low-cost, home-grown, community-driven, solidarity-based, well-being-focused, indigenous economic practices, governed by "other reasonings" and embedded in the local cultural contexts were pushed to the margin by the colonial and post-colonial predatory economic system, only to be rediscovered at present, when they surprisingly proved resilient in the face of the crisis-ridden dominant model (Dash, 2015). Heavily concentrated with women, more so in the informal sector, these enterprises often lack labor standards, without any Decent Work opportunities, security or protection for the workers.
The challenges facing countries around the world is to craft robust policy instruments designed to strengthen national capacity to restore the histories of lifeline through a job-intensive recovery process, an extension of social protection and increasing opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income as a powerful driver of sustainable development goals (SDGs). In the context of these challenges, to achieve progress and social justice in the context of globalization and, more immediately, to provide a crisis response framework designed to guide national and international policies to counterbalance the effects of the economic crisis and stimulate recovery, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has...