Collaboration ecosystems and food security are key elements to foster socio-labour inclusion

• The X Forum of Inclusive Employment and Entrepreneurship, which took place last Thursday 3rd of November in Madrid, addressed key trends to promote the socio-labour inclusion of vulnerable groups.  
• Food security and health practices, together with cooperative social innovation and inclusive digitalization were discussed as key elements to ensure socio-labour inclusion.
• National and international experts on inclusive employment and entrepreneurship participated in this event, which was jointly organized by Acción contra el Hambre  and the  European Network of Innovation for Inclusion.

The X Forum of inclusive employment and entrepreneurship, organized by Acción contra el Hambre and the European Network of Innovation for Inclusion, took place last Thurday in Madrid. This gathering, in which experts in employment and entrepreneurship participated, highlighted the need to address, through different social spheres, public entities and companies, issues such as the health-employment binomial or the importance of ecosystems to promote cooperation and collaboration in social innovation. These topics were discussed as key elements to improve the impact on vulnerable groups and enhance their access to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.

The CEO of Acción contra el Hambre, Olivier Longué, emphasized how “the multiple crises we are currently facing underline the need to foster collaboration between entities in order to keep thinking, devising and innovating for social inclusion". Drawing on this idea of interconnectedness and innovation, the General Director of Open Government and Social Innovation at the Government of Aragón, Raúl Oliván, highlighted the importance of placing social innovation “in a pivotal position within the current political system and linking it to the social contract. We must understand that social innovation cannot be a magical seed, but rather a systemic one, and needs long-term involvement of key actors”.

Pilar Martínez, Sustainable Food Programme's Manager at Fundación Daniel y Nina Carasso, together with Claudia Rocío Magaña, researcher at the University of Barcelona, directed the discussion towards new food security approaches and health practices, stressing how “food security goes beyond mere economic access to food products and includes broader aspects such as education or physical access to products”. Additionally, they encouraged all attendees to innovate, think and imagine through the ecological transition process.

During the presentation of her research study “Feeding a sustainable future”, Claudia Magaña put forward some relevant figures, like the fact that 13% of Spanish households experience some type of food insecurity. She also stressed how "understanding why these households cannot access sustainable, adequate and decent food" is the first step that needs to be taken in order to fulfil people’s right to food security. In her speech, she also recalled the value of measurements, since "what cannot be measured is difficult to manage”, and “in order to design effective solutions that tackle food insecurity, we ought to know the scope of the problem”

In a similar vein, Noemi López, Researcher at the Research Group in Nutritional Epidemiology (EPINUT-UCM) at the University Complutense of Madrid, explained the work she undertakes jointly with Acción contra el Hambre in the promotion of the healthy life approach as a driver for employability, entrepreneurship and health. “Job insecurity increases the risk of suffering from food insecurity and, at the same time, health also conditions access to employment. It is a bidirectional relationship between health and employment”, the researcher claimed.

Finally, the event finished with an award ceremony to the winning and finalist entities of the VI Call for Good Practices organized by the European Network of Innovation for Inclusion. The awarded organizations were Monaliiku, Plan International Spain, Platform for Green Employment and Entrepreneurship, APID – Imprendirotialià Donna, Cyprus Energy Agency and KMOP.

View the agenda of the X Forum of Inclusive Employment and Entrepreneurship.