Companies are increasingly looking to their purchasing power as an opportunity to go beyond compliance and actively pursue positive social and environmental outcomes. The development of a “Buy Social movement” over the last years has seen public authorities, businesses and consumers increasingly seeking out opportunities to buy from social enterprises.
The action will support the creation of local and regional partnerships aiming at reinforcing policy initiatives to improve collaboration in EU 27 (and other countries eligible to participate in the programme) between social economy entities and mainstream businesses in their supply chain strategies.
These partnerships will aim at helping mainstream businesses to engage with a range of social economy suppliers and embeds sustainability and diversity into their core operations and value chains. It will also help social enterprises to grow their revenues and impact by tapping into corporate purchasing power.
This call for proposals aims to support actions that enhance an information flow, mutual understanding and learning perspectives between ‘regular’ and SE enterprises, and promote local, regional or national partnerships engaging SE representatives and mainstream business representatives (such as federations, sector federations or similar supporting organisations) and public authorities to foster the creation of “buy social” B2B markets at local, regional, national or cross-border level.
Who is eligible:
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- Non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme
Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of applicants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions: Minimum 5 and maximum 10 participants (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) from at last 3 different eligible countries