In Guadeloupe, when sustainable agriculture goes hand in hand with job integration
Natacha KANCEL
Head of the Drain’ailes project
Job integration into sustainable agriculture field
When we were putting together the financing for our project, it became clear that we needed substantial working capital to maintain and develop our business. This loan gave us the stability we needed to move forward.
Sainte-Rose – Guadeloupe
Job integration into sustainable agriculture field
Drain’ailes is the first association in Guadeloupe to benefit from a free loan from France Active Guadeloupe. Thanks to this financial support, it is consolidating its economic base. It will also enable it to write a new page for its rural territory, with its high unemployment rate, and for the dozen or so women who work there in sustainable agriculture.
Natacha Kancel has set up her Drain’ailes back-to-work workshop in Sainte-Rose, a town in the north of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe. Since the end of 2023, she has been employing a dozen women on the farm, working in three areas: agroforestry (cocoa, vanilla, coffee, etc.), permaculture organic farming (market gardening, fruit trees, etc.) and agro-processing (sauces, seasonings, juices, etc.).
A culinary and agricultural heritage
In creating Drain’ailes, Natacha Kancel had one aim: to pass on the island’s natural heritage. First and foremost to the younger generation: “Many young people are turning away from local produce in favour of processed and imported foods, which are often unhealthy,” she explains. “So my aim is to introduce them to local products, such as our fruit syrups and jams, which have the double advantage of being 100% Guadeloupean and much less sweet”.
This tradition is also passed on by women. Natacha Kancel drew her inspiration from her grandmother and mother who, like many at the time, had a small piece of garden that they cultivated themselves. “My aim is to reintroduce local women to the skills that enable them to increase their purchasing power and regain pride in providing for themselves and their families with the fruits of their labour. At Drain’elles, most of the women in the integration programme are single mothers. Ultimately, with the association, our aim is to develop food self-sufficiency, the economy and education, but also to give a positive image to Sainte-Rose, often cited unfortunately for its unemployment and delinquency rate”, she adds.
So when the regional programme for enterprises that aim to re-integrate people through work (Dispositif régional d’accompagnement des Structures d’insertion par l’activité économique), which supports the project, redirected it to the newly-created France Active Guadeloupe, supported by the European Social Fund (ESF+), the latter had no hesitation in backing the project.
“Drain’ailes meets all the points of France Active’s commitment,” confirms Magali Lacambra, Director of France Active Guadeloupe. Namely: participative governance, action in the social and employment sectors, at the heart of a territory with strong needs and in response to the challenges of sustainable transition.
Unprecedented support for associations
Drain’ailes is the first association to benefit from a free loan – i.e. a zero-interest loan – granted by France Active Guadeloupe (amounting to 21,000 euros). “When we were putting together the financial package for our project, it became clear that we needed a lot of working capital to be able to sustain and develop our business. This loan gave us the stability we needed to move forward”, confirms Natacha Kancel.
The free loan offered by France Active Guadeloupe, with funding from the Banque des Territoires, the Region and the Department, is an innovative product. “This free loan is an accessible solution and a real lever for associations that often have difficulty accessing bank loans,” explains Magali Lacambra. “We can co-finance up to 70% of their needs. This opens the door to new financial solutions for associations.”
With this support, Drain’ailes can now look to the future by multiplying its projects and has the means to increase its financial autonomy: extending the workshop to accommodate around ten extra people (in particular to offer essential oils or floral waters), or improving the vanilla processing. “In 2-3 years’ time, our ambition is to present our vanilla at the Concours Général, which will be an additional lever for promoting the work of the women who produce it”, concludes Natacha Kancel.
The France Active Guadeloupe offer is being structured
With the aim of making its offer available in all regions, France Active created France Active Guadeloupe in 2023, after two years of experimentation. “Financing via France Active Investissement, particularly equity loans, already existed in Guadeloupe. With the creation of the France Active Guadeloupe association, we are now in a position to offer free loans to associations. We play the role of investor in conjunction with other co-financiers, to provide a unique tool for organisations that are setting up, relaunching or experiencing difficulties. Our range of support services is expanding”, explains Marie Chauvin, head of the Services and Advice Department.
Has benefited
from an investment of
21 000€
Was supported by
France Active Guadeloupe
In 2024
It’s here !
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Pierre-René Lemas re-elected Chairman of France Active
On July 4, Pierre-René Lemas was re-elected Chairman of France Active. This senior civil servant has devoted his entire career to the public interest, notably as a regional prefect, General Secretary of the Elysée Palace and Director of the Caisse des Dépôts Group.
In 2018, he was elected to succeed Christian Sautter as president of the France Active association movement. This will now be his 3rd mandate, enabling him to continue developing the work of the network’s 35 regional associations.
Pierre-René Lemas reiterated his ambition to pursue the development of the movement and to contribute to making entrepreneurship a powerful ally in the economic and social development of territories. He will lead reflection on the new 2025/2030 strategic project, with a focus on supporting projects that are ever more socially and environmentally committed.
Pierre-René LEMAS
Chairman of France Active
France Active plays an essential role in the French economic landscape. Our associative movement meets a dual need: to develop socially useful structures in our regions (associations and social enterprises) and to support all entrepreneurs who have difficulty accessing bank credit, due to their personal or geographical situation, by offering them a guarantee that reassures the bank.
We will continue to foster cooperation between socially committed entrepreneurs in the regions. We intend to mobilize even more citizens, entrepreneurs as well as public and private players who share our vision of transforming the economy. In keeping with the vision of our founder, the humanist and resistance fighter Claude Alphandéry, we must bring together and develop all the initiatives that will enable us to meet the social and ecological challenges we face.
Renewed governance for France Active
The re-election of Pierre-René Lemas also went with a renewal of France Active’s governance.
On May 30, the Annual General Meeting approved the appointment of three new directors to the Board of Qualified Personalities: Catherine Husson-Traoré, Managing Director of Novethic and Elisabeth Rivière, lawyer, Claire Thoury, President of Mouvement Associatif, and two new directors to the Board of Economic Partners: Anne-Claire Roux, Managing Director of Fondation Mirova and Yves Pellicier, Chairman of Groupe Maif.
France Active, the movement of committed entrepreneurs
France Active enables every entrepreneur to get involved in a project with a positive impact. Setting up a business and getting involved in your region, giving meaning to your project and transforming society: that’s the challenge facing socially committed entrepreneurs. France Active and its 35 regional associations are there to advise them on their financing projects and give them access to a unique network of economic and social players.
With its 2 finance companies, France Active supports more than 36,440 entrepreneurs. The movement mobilized 485 million euros in 2023. Every day, France Active works to develop a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Last year, businesses supported by France Active created or consolidated more than 67,080 jobs.
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From Europe to the regions : how do socially committed entrepreneurs benefit from European funding?
Europe may seem far away, but it is at the heart of the regions, promoting employment and access to bank credit, and enabling the most vulnerable people to create and develop the most social and environment friendly businesses.
Europe is involved both in the direct financing of entrepreneurs and in strengthening the skills of France Active advisors.
Loan guarantees and investments
France Active mobilizes European funds to finance the projects of the most fragile entrepreneurs and the most socially committed organisations.
For example, Europe, via the European Investment Fund (EIF), provides a loan “counter-guarantee” to cover the risk taken by France Active when it acts as guarantor for the most fragile entrepreneurs. Thus, they do not have to take out a personal guarantee when launching their business. This program is particularly aimed at priority groups (people in very precarious situations, young people or women looking for work or in precarious employment) and priority areas (priority urban districts, rural revitalization zones).
The EIF also provides guarantees for France Active’s investments, enabling entrepreneurs to go even further in their support for priority target groups, the most fragile areas and innovative business projects with a high social impact, while controlling risk.
Experimentation
Europe enables France Active to set up experiments to adjust its financing offer according to the different life phases of structures.1
To facilitate the start-up and takeover phases, France Active recently upgraded its solidarity investment offer, capitalizing in particular on recent experiments. To do this, France Active drew on feedback from a loan deployed to 400 social enterprises to cope with the crisis, and more broadly on its expertise in financing developed over some thirty years.
The IMPACT+ project (supported by the European Commission) is currently being carried out, with the aim of structuring social economy sectors.
Bringing together some twenty federations, networks, academic players and social enterprises, the Franco-Belgian VISES project has developed a social impact measurement approach that takes into account the specific characteristics of social enterprises. This participative, tailor-made, qualitative and quantitative social impact assessment approach questions the link between social needs and a company’s missions, with the aim of going beyond the effectiveness of action.
Since the end of this project, France Active has been working on spreading this approach within its own network.
Non-financial support
ESF+ is a very important source of funding for the France Active network and its work in supporting and financing entrepreneurs and SSE structures. It enables us to support, put in touch and finance a growing number of entrepreneurs who are far from the banking system (jobseekers, recipients of minimum social benefits, young people under 26, women, etc.) and social enterprises.
The France Active association mobilizes the ESF+ for its network professionalization actions2 with the French ministry of labour (Délégation générale à l’emploi et à la formation professionnelle DGEFP). France Active’s regional associations mobilize the ESF+ (or ERDF where applicable) of the Regions for their initiatives in support of entrepreneurial projects, in line with regional operational programs.
The DLA is the French leading organization delivering capacity-building support for the social economy. It works free of charge with socially useful organisations to help them develop their jobs and projects. To support social entrepreneurs in their projects, France Active, as the DLA financement resource center3, produces guides, thematic studies, educational sheets and articles.
Denis DEMENTHON
Managing Director of France Active
In the run-up to the European elections on Sunday June 9, in a tense economic and external context, it’s important to recall what Europe does for France Active, in support of projects by jobseekers, associations and social enterprises.
Europe is an essential partner for France Active, and a real lever of financing for entrepreneurs.
Pierre-René Lemas is a member of a European group of experts on socia economy at a time when Europe is giving it an increasingly important place, with the implementation of the European social economy action plan launched by Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights.
Europe will be what we make of it! So let’s continue to show what we’re building with Europe’s support: the development of a more inclusive and sustainable economy at the service of local communities.
1 – It is in this context that France Active has implemented the “ReadinESS” project, dedicated to preparing social enterprises for investment, and the “SOON” project for the most innovative social enterprises in the seed phase – Back
2 – As part of “Nouvel horizon: structuration et professionnalisation du réseau France Active” – Back
3 – Financed by the European Commission – Back
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French social businesses get €400 million boost with EIF support
EIF signs two accords with France Active to unlock more funding for social enterprises.
The European Investment Fund (EIF) will facilitate a total of €400 million in business support by France Active, a leading financier of socially committed French firms. The EIF is guaranteeing France Active investments in social enterprises to the tune of €45 million and counter-guaranteeing €355 million of bank loans by its unit France Active Garantie to entrepreneurs with limited access to financing.
As a result, France Active will aim to double the number of beneficiary companies to 1,000 by end-2027, increasing annual support to €90 million, and France Active Garantie will expand its activities by 50% over the same period. This will lead to more than 10,000 companies benefiting from bank-loan guarantees valued at €300 million a year.”The involvement of Europe – and of the EIF in particular – is essential to the work of France Active,” said Chairman Pierre-René Lemas. “It enables us to carry out our associative project by mobilising public and private funds, banks and management companies for the benefit of fragile entrepreneurs and projects that place social utility at the heart of their model. Supporting our role as guarantor and investor, the EIF provides us with long-term support, which in turn contributes to the development of a more socially responsible economy in all regions.”The EIF backing results from a guarantee provided through the InvestEU programme, which supports more than €372 billion in investments towards EU policy priorities through 2027.
“Supporting the lending capacity of microenterprises and social enterprises is very important for maintaining job creation and activity in structures essential to social cohesion in France and throughout Europe,” said Fayolle. “Through these two agreements, the EIB Group is delighted to be able to strengthen its long-term relationship with France Active Garantie and France Active, which play an essential role in supporting and developing social entrepreneurship in France”.
Social enterprises supported by France Active through EIF and InvestEU guarantees include the Iron Academy, an association called Le Recho that supports exiled people in France and food supplier Shape-Eat, representatives of which attended the signing ceremony.
“European instruments for microfinance and social enterprises are effective in improving access to financial resources for economic players who need them most,” said EIF Chief Executive Officer Marjut Falkstedt. “This is why the EIF is renewing its collaboration with France Active Garantie and France Active Investissement to strengthen our ability to serve the social finance sector in France.”
European Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit stressed the role of InvestEU.”InvestEU provides essential support for social enterprises across Europe,” Schmit said. “This new financial agreement will be a catalyst for some 10,000 enterprises operating in France, improving their access to financing. This will help create new jobs and contribute to strengthening the social and solidarity economy, which is a priority for the European Union, while reinforcing social and territorial cohesion.”Following are the names of the leading representatives of the Iron Academy, Le Recho and Shape-Eat and summaries of the three organisations:
Françoise Candier, director of the Iron Academy
The Iron Academy is a production school located in Stains, Seine-Saint-Denis. It trains young people who have left school without a diploma in the metal trades (CAP Métallier). The two-year course is based on a “doing to learn” approach. Supported by a public-interest association, the production school gives young people a new chance by training them in jobs that are in short supply.
France Active has invested €150,000 alongside Banque des Territoires.
Vanessa Krycève, founder of Le Recho
Le Recho is an association founded in 2016 to support exiled people in France and Europe with dignity. In order to change the way these people are looked at, the association chooses the medium of cuisine based on the principle that it is a unifying language, a driving force for inclusion and solidarity. Le Recho offers a catering service and provides meals for the Ball in Paris’s 18th arrondissement, in addition to all its food-related activities.
France Active invested €30,000 and guaranteed a €60,000 loan from the Nef banking cooperative, up to 65%.
Ananth Purushothaman, founder of Shape-Eat
Ananth Purushothaman created Shape-Eat. He benefitted from the Accès + program: a €3,000 bonus and enhanced support set up as part of the government’s scheme for inclusion through self-employment (Ministry of Labor). He set up his business in the heart of a priority district in Saint-Ouenand offers food products for athletes.
France Active guaranteed 80% of a €60,000 loan from the Caisse d’Epargne Ile de France and granted a €24,000 loan.
About the European Investment Fund
The European Investment Fund, part of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, designs and implements financial instruments that enable banks and funds (financial intermediaries) to better serve SMEs. It supports European SMEs by improving their access to financing through a wide range of selected financial intermediaries. Its work with France Active is part of the InvestEU program, which aims to give a further boost to sustainable investment, innovation, social inclusion and job creation in Europe.
About InvestEU
The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term financing, mobilizing substantial private and public funds for a sustainable recovery. It also helps mobilize private investment for the European Union’s political priorities, such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. The InvestEU program brings together under one roof the various EU financial instruments currently available to support investment in the European Union, making the financing of investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The program consists of three elements: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Centre and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU fund is implemented by financial partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will support the investment projects of the implementing partners, increasing their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilizing at least €372 billion in additional investment.
France Active, the movement of committed entrepreneurs
France Active enables every entrepreneur to get involved in a project with a positive impact. Setting up a business and getting involved in the local community, giving meaning to your project and transforming society: that’s the challenge facing committed entrepreneurs. France Active and its 35 regional associations are there to advise them on their financing projects and give them access to a unique network of economic and social players. With its 2 finance companies, France Active supports more than 36,000 entrepreneurs. The movement mobilized 485 million euros in 2023. Every day, France Active works to develop a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Last year, businesses supported by France Active created or consolidated more than 67,000 jobs.
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Mobilizing investment to meet social and ecological challenges
France Active’s “Actifs Solidaires” initiative is designed to give all associations and social economy companies the opportunity to invest.
Much more than a new financial offering, it’s a whole approach that France Active is initiating to mobilize all its partners.
The ambition is to enable all players to consolidate their mission of social utility and to think about the future in response to social and ecological emergencies.
Here’s an update on this initiative and on the first Actifs Solidaires meetings in Paris and the regions.
https://vimeo.com/905266735?share=copy
The logic behind Actifs Solidaires is to develop the access to investment for social and solidarity based companies and non-profit organizations so they can project themselves into the future.
This approach, supported by France Active, mobilizes both its partners committed to its associative project and Social Economy leaders. It demonstrates that finance, by mobilizing the savings of citizens, is able to invest in projects whose primary expected return on investment is about their social utility.
Actifs Solidaires are men and women who, on a day-to-day basis, carry out projects based on job creation, ecology, regional development and social cohesion within a framework of democratic governance.
Actifs Solidaires also provides the financial resources to enable these players to focus on the social and solidarity-based dimension of their projects. Actifs Solidaires mobilizes all the teams at France Active and its partners, who are convinced that they are working together to serve committed entrepreneurs.
Actifs Solidaires is a new way of raising awareness of the challenges of investment among the leaders of the social economy, and of supporting them in the face of ecological, societal and digital transformations.
Finally, Actifs Solidaires is France Active’s ambition to double the number of non-profit organizations and socail economy companies it supports by 2027.
Actifs Solidaires initiative launched across France
A launch in Paris
The first step in this process was a conference held on September 28 at Césure in Paris.
The theme of the evening was “Mobilizing finance to meet social and ecological challenges: the new deal for socially responsible investment”.
How can committed entrepreneurs respond to the profound changes in our modes of production, consumption and way of life? How can solidarity finance provide new answers to their needs?
Solidarity investors, committed entrepreneurs and France Active partners were all present to discuss the issues.
And here’s the best of them.
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New year wishes 2024
Pierre-René LEMAS
Chairman of France Active
The socio-economic context and the growing importance of climate change issues reinforce what connects us: the deep desire to transform our society through economic development that is compatible with the future of generations to come, and oriented to the inclusion of all.
The various crises we are experiencing can only lead us to take even more action. Returning to the fundamentals that drive us is the dearest wish for this new year that I express on behalf of France Active, its teams, employees and volunteers.
And it’s in the values of the Social Economy that we must refound our action. Every day, the thousands of entrepreneurs we support demonstrate that it is possible to reconcile economic development with social commitment. It’s a commitment that is built locally around issues of employment, ecology and social cohesion, within a framework of democratic governance.
Acting for a more social economy means betting on the future. A collective gamble that concerns us all.
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A second chance for childcare equipment
Séverine INKERMAN
CEO and co-founder of Tikoantik
Advise and sales of reconditioned childcare equipment
Every year, millions of new items of childcare equipment are bought in France. Most of these come from Asia. Séverine Inkerman wanted to offer a fair and sustainable alternative, releasing cleaned and inspected equipment back into the circuit at a reasonable price.
Lorient (Brittany)
Advise and sales of reconditioned childcare equipment
Every year, millions of new items of childcare equipment are bought in France. Most of these come from Asia. Séverine Inkerman wanted to offer a fair and sustainable alternative, releasing cleaned and inspected equipment back into the circuit at a reasonable price.The idea is simple: future parents come for a meetingto help identify their needs in terms of equipment for their new baby. Using Tikoantik’s list, they can buy this equipment from the website and get the items sent directly to their home.The idea for this company came in 2021, at the peak of the Covid 19 pandemic. A small group of parents, interested by the circular economy, came together to think of an alternative to buying new childcare equipment. Especially when the first child arrives, parents need advice, quality control, and guarantees. This is what Tikoantik offers.With this project, Séverine Inkerman wanted to build a real local ecosystem, based on a social and community-oriented economy: she works with Esat Alter Ego to clean the equipment, and with the professional reintegration company Book Hémisphères for logistics and product shipping. Their items are intended for parents and for childcare professionals (such as nursery managers, for example).At the same time, Tikoantik is working to help people change their behaviour, using awareness workshops and events to help parents become more environmentally aware.To get this project off the ground, Séverine Inkerman received support from France Active as part of the Emergence Space package. “The most precious thing we got from France Active was their benevolent yet demanding perspective on our project”, she tells us.
Web site
Has received
a guarantee of
33 000€
from the “Place de l’émergence” programme
10 000€
Was supported by
France Active Bretagne
And supported by
Caisse des Dépôts
In 2022
It’s here !
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Ô filles de l’eau: a mobile fishmongers, helping protect and preserve French fisheries
Laurie DUÉE and Susie BATALLA
Co-founders of Ô filles de l’eau
Mobile fishmongers in and around Reims
Opening a fishmongers was my dream, and the Accès+ programme allowed up to access a bank guarantee and a grant , which really gave us the boost we needed to get off the ground.
Reims (Marne)
A mobile fishmongers
Ô filles de l’eau is the result of two entrepreneurs coming together: Laurie and Susie.
Laurie is 24, and is passionate about fish. She started working at the fishmarket with her father at the age of 16, while she was still at school. It gradually became clear that this would be her career. She took her exams to become an apprentice fishmonger and got valuable work experience in supermarkets and restaurants. For greater independence, to promote sustainable fishing, and to be able to choose the products she sells, she decided to start up a mobile fishmongers.
It was at this point that she met Susie. She was helping her mother, who had just switched jobs to become an organic market gardener. At 29 years old, Susie had been working in corporate management and human resources in a few different companies, but wasn’t enjoying her work.It was only natural that they pooled their skills to found “Ô filles de l’eau”, a mobile fishmongers that visited various communes around Reims. They also offer catering services, providing an “oyster bar” service for weddings and corporate events. Lastly, they sell monthly fish baskets and are starting to provide home deliveries.They want to bring a fresh new image to the fishmonger’s trade: dynamic, young, feminine, and in support of certified, labelled French fish.
They discovered France Active when they started up their project, recommended by a friend and the banks that they spoke to. “The Accès+ grant from France Active gave us a little more cash to help launch our project, the cashflow training made us more comfortable managing the company, and the bank guarantee was a real push in the right direction. Without this guarantee, we might not have had our loan.”
They are open from Tuesday to Saturday in the markets in and around Reims, offering their products for a year now. New projects are already in the pipeline, in particular sharing their expertise by taking on an apprentice, and even one day getting a workshop so they can develop new products and expand their range.
Focus on the Inclusion Programme for Independent Workers:
In March 2021, France Active responded to a call for project launched by the Ministry for Work, Jobs, and Integration. France Active took the opportunity to enhance their Creation Pact with new support modules for the most vulnerable entrepreneurs, based around 4 key themes:
- Financial education (managing cashflow, maintaining good relations with your bank, dashboards and management tools, crowdfunding, and financial analysis and management),
- Protection and security (risk prevention, social and legal protection, civil liability, cyber-risks),
- Digital awareness (finding new clients, building a brand, etc.),
- Awareness of the commitments that come with building a business.
And, for young people from 18 to 30 years old, a €3,000 grant.
Web site
Have received
a guarantee of
28 000€
a bonus of
3 000€
Was supported by
France Active Champagne Ardenne
In 2022
It’s here !
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Investing to meet social and ecological challenges
A look back at France Active’s annual general meetings.
A major event in the institutional life of France Active, the general meetings of the association and its two financial guarantee and investment companies were held on May 31 at La Recyclerie in Paris. It was an opportunity for the associative movement to review the past year and look ahead to the years to come. The major decision of the General Meeting was the vote by the directors on the network’s development plan. To meet the social and ecological challenges facing an increasing number of entrepreneurs, France Active aims to double its solidarity investor activity and increase its guarantor activity by 50% by 2027. The general meetings of France Active’s entities on May 31 approved the raising of three new funds: 10 million euros for the national association, 10 million euros for its guarantee company, and 200 million euros for its investment company. The first concrete result of these fund-raisings is the new solidarity investment offer, which will be deployed from next September. It will enable social non-profit organizations and companies to meet unmet investment needs. Whether they are encountering difficulties in sustaining their economic model, or wish to respond to new opportunities, they need specific support for their development, and appropriate financing. France Active’s financing offer provides solutions for entrepreneurs at every stage of their project’s life cycle.
France Active Garantie: securing entrepreneurial paths
At the France Active Garantie General Meeting, Dominique Pillon-Godart and Kevin Fournaux from France Active Picardie spoke about the deployment of the Accès+ program in Picardy. Among other things, they talked about the implementation of an educational strategy for beneficiaries, designed to desecrate the relationship with the bank. The aim is to bring project owners and their bankers closer together, so that they can access the guarantee as early as possible in the life of a project. In Picardie, France Active has proudly achieved its Accès+ objectives, thanks to webinars tailored to the needs of beneficiaries and co-constructed with the national association.
France Active Investissement: investing in social benefits
France Active Investissement’s Annual General Meeting was an opportunity for Yesil Rusconi, Director of France Active Ile-de-France, to present a project supported in close collaboration with ADEME (the French Agency for Ecological Transition). She underlined the strong complementariry of the two networks in their support for the company “Le pav鮓. This company reconciles social and environmental concerns. It produces building materials in panel format using plastic waste on a territorial industrial scale, in line with local needs and available resources. The company, created in 2018, was supported from the beginning by France Active and ADEME and again when it scaled up a year ago. The first plant, based in Aubervilliers, employs people on integration schemes in collaboration with ARES (a social insertion association), and recycles 300 tonnes of waste annually. A second plant is currently being developed in Burgundy, at Chalon-sur-Saône.
France Active: connecting solidarity forces
After sharing the association’s main results and validating the annual accounts, the focus was on “Territoire de solutions“, a collaboration and incubation experiment carried out in the “Seine Eure” region, aimed at helping entrepreneurial solutions emerge or accelerate in response to identified social and environmental challenges.
Benoit Rugel, Director of France Active Normandie, Claire Leclerc, Director of SocialCobizz and Pierre Hourcourigaray, Director of l’Adress came to testify.
They showed how, by acting collectively and involving citizens as well as local players, they have been able to support project leaders wishing to create in the social and solidarity economy. This approach enables them to help them formalize, structure and turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality. They were then joined by Lynda Lahalle, Social Economy delegate and vice-president of the Normandy region’s economic development commission, who presented the ‘Super incubator’, the territorial social economy hub piloted by the region.
Round table: social challenges, ecological challenges, what kind of citizen ownership of the economy?
- Claire Thoury, President of Mouvement Associatif, gave a sociologist’s view of how citizens, through associations, are taking up this issue.
- Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore, general director of Novethic, the sustainable transformation accelerator of the Caisse des Dépôts Group. As a former journalist, she shares her knowledge of the major transformations of the financial sector and sustainable finance in particular.
- Pierre-René Lemas, president of France Active.
Pierre-René Lemas opens the debate as follows: “This afternoon, we collectively decided to take a step forward. France Active is more than 30 years old, initially founded around social and solidarity values, the association was able to add the ecological dimension. France Active is well aware that social and ecological aspects go hand in hand together.
Today we have defined our five-year horizon: doubling our investment activity and increasing our guarantee activity by 50%. We are equipping ourselves with new resources to this end. Our objective remains the same: to use finance as leverage to develop the Social Economy and enable those who are furthest from employment to create their businesses.”
Claire Thoury continues: “France Active is an activist organization, it uses the codes of traditional classical economics to transform society.
I call on the Social Economy to do the same, to repoliticize itself. We depoliticized it and forgot why we were together. What are our common goals? And what sacrifices are we willing to make to achieve them? The economic dimension has taken too much precedence over the political dimension.
Let us bring together the imperatives of social justice and the imperatives of ecological transition, while integrating an essential pillar that is democracy in order to allow citizens to get involved.”
Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore adds: “Faced with the gigantism of the challenges that await us here and now, re-politicization is obviously necessary.
It is essential to put in place a sustainable economic, social and ecological model because today it is not the case. Faced with global problems, we need global solutions, and finance is one of the solutions. We need to bring social aspiration, citizenship and finance together.”
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