Social Performance Indicators: an Overview

Indicators are used to measure the extent to which the established standards (the coded principles and core values) of an economy are attained. The present workshop on indicators is a landmark initiative at the World Social Forum because it provokes the forum to address the question: « To what extent has solidarity economy realized the standards it has set for itself? » But since we are dealing with the other half of the economy, the financial sector, we shall confine the discussion of our workshop on this sector.

A further limitation of our discussion is that we confine our analysis on a specific segment of the financial sector - investment finance for the disadvantaged groups and the excluded. I believe the notion of Solidarity Finance is much broader than this - it should encompass the entire system governing the financial and capital markets that supports solidarity economy including an alternative central banking system, alternative monetary system, alternative financial instruments, alternative equity instruments and equities market, and so forth.