The Economy for the Common Good (ECG) is a global social movement working on repurposing the economic system towards the wellbeing for people and nature. Despite the Corona pandemic, the movement keeps thriving, especially in Latin America. Luciana Cornaglia from Argentina was elected as a new member of the international management team.
While globally, there is growing social awareness that the world must now seize the moment to transition to a future-fit economy for the decades ahead to prevent further social and environmental crises, ECG has already been working for 10 years to realign economies with core heartfelt values such as human dignity and environmental sustainability. 10 concrete prototypes demonstrate the practical viability of the ECG model. At the 6th ECG Delegates Assembly from 18-19 June, more than one hundred participants from all continents met online for two days to discuss strategies for a sustainable post-crisis world.
The ECG movement, originally initiated in Austria and Germany, is spreading over the world with currently more than 37 national chapters, among them countries such as the UK and Chile. Most rapidly, it is growing in Latin America, where representatives from 12 countries are collaborating with businesses, municipalities, universities, and the broader civil society to steer economic change. “Many of us were looking for new instruments to accelerate changes that we felt our society needed to undergo, for a way of life known here by names like ‘Buen Vivir’,” says Anantzintli Andrea Rígolí, co-founder of the Uruguayan ECG chapter. “The ECG model brings us the opportunity to light that fire again. It provides a holistic model to really bring values such as human dignity, social justice, transparency, participation and sustainability to our economy.“
The Latin American groups are forming an entire network, exchanging knowledge and practices across borders. The first company to do a Common Good Balance Sheet, Entrebichitos, is a frontrunner in Latin America. The company that is regenerating contaminated soils and purifying waters, while promoting human rights, was the first one to employ the ECG methodology, and has since then been setting an example for the Latin American region. At the Assembly, the ECG members elected the Argentinian economist Luciana Cornaglia as a new member of the international management team, thereby sending a strong sign that ECG has become a truly global movement: “As the first member of the management team from a non-European and non-North American country, I advocate cultural diversity and the adaptation of the ECG’s overall vision to local conditions in any part of the world”, comments Cornaglia her new role. “It is with great responsibility and commitment that we take up the challenge of making ECG a reality in our and other continents.”
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