European dialogue platform on ethical and solidarity-based initiatives for combating poverty and social exclusion

The European Inter-network of Ethical and Solidarity-based Initiatives (IRIS), established since January 2007, is a space of dialogue and co-operation between European and international networks representing different families of ethical and solidarity-based initiatives : solidarity-based finance (FEBEA, INAISE), fair trade (IFAT), responsible consumption (ASECO, URGENCI) and socio-economic solidarity-based insertion (ENSIE), under the auspices of the Council of Europe and of the Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy.

IRIS activities aim to :
Enhance exchange and dialogue between various ethical and solidarity-based approaches in order to promote mutual training and support ;
Compare these approaches with other actions against poverty and social exclusion in order to assure the added-value for the population and especially for vulnerable groups ;
Assure communication with public institutions ;
Develop further links and initiatives aiming to integrate in the « mainstream » concepts and methods initiated by the Inter-network members.
Website of the the European Inter-network of Ethical and Solidarity-based Initiatives
A partnership was established with the Council of Europe and the European Commission in order to identify, implement and promote complementarities between various approaches working against poverty and social exclusion : conventional support approaches (public policies or NGOs humanitarian aid) and ethical and solidarity-based citizen-led approaches supported by the Council of Europe in its platform.
Agenda for 2007

Identify areas of complementarity ;
Express complementarity by experimenting a new approach : the Multipartite Social Contract ;
Create new areas of complementarity with the "Responsible Territories for Social Cohesion", concept which will be tested in three pilot territories : Ile de France region (France), the Province of Trento (Italy) and Timisoara region (Romania).
Promote complementarities through communication campaigns (schools/media). 		 
Multipartite Social Contract: Mutual engagement between beneficiaries, institutional and associational partners to ensure social inclusion of people in difficulty. It integrates different dimensions of social exclusion and different approaches to reach goals that the partners have decided on together.

Responsible Territories for Social Cohesion: Territory in which all the players, not least citizens themselves, co-operate and are committed to meeting expectations regarding well-being and social cohesion.