Background paper for the FAO Regional Consultations with CSOs and the FAO Regional Conference (Europe and Central Asia, Baku (Azerbaijan), 15-17th of April 2012)

This background paper has been written at the request of the members of the Coordinating Committee of the Civil Society Mechanism of the Committee for Food Security and others present at the Budapest meeting in December 2011 as a support for the preparation for the FAO Regional Consultations with

CSOs and the FAO Regional Conference. It is not an exhaustive analysis of the social and solidarity economy, merely an overview, and certainly an incomplete one at that. The aim is to stimulate discussion and ideas on how Food Sovereignty and Solidarity Economy fit together.