Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Iberian American Secretary General,
Executive Director of Oikos Portugal,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I was very pleased to accept the invitation addressed me by the organization of the Civic Forum to attend the start of your working meetings. I consider that the assertion of the Iberian American Community will never result without mustering the civil society, because there lay the concerns and anxieties that must rule our political thought. I thus wish you the best of success and expectantly await your contribution for the Summit which will commence tomorrow.

The topic chosen for this XIX Iberian American Summit, “Innovation and Knowledge” could not be more opportune and stimulating, if we take into consideration the context of the global economic and social crisis which surrounds us.

The effects of the financial crisis on the productive structures, international trade and social cohesion are far from being overcome. It is anyway estimated that the recovery planned for the next few years will not have immediate effects on job creation and on the well being of the affected peoples.

In this context it is urgent that we look with redoubled care at the more vulnerable social groups, those that, affected by unemployment or by the lack of demand for labour, by the fall in income and by the growing difficulties of solidarity institutions, see their precarious subsistence threatened.

I think of those that, due to advanced age, face greater difficulties in professional reinsertion. I think of young people searching for new employment. I think of handicapped persons and of so many others that, during the last year descended into situations of poverty and social exclusion.

The situation even becomes worse when States are faced nowadays with financial limitations imposed by large deficits and excessive indebtedness, which inhibit them from furthering traditional social policies of income redistribution.

If the international crisis brings up new issues, it is time we find new answers.

For this reason I believe it is urgent to appeal for all possible contributions and solutions. We cannot be confined to macroeconomic measures and to the exclusivity of public policies, which have an ever greater reduction in their margin of effectiveness.

A general mustering against unemployment, new poverty and social exclusion requires a new civic conscience and greater mobilization and social responsibility of the people, of the enterprises and of the local communities, in the progressing of common objectives with characteristics of solidarity.

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of American democracy, never tired from encouraging the small local communities to promote innovatory initiatives which aimed for their well being and social development.

These could be small measures, small solutions, focused on day to day issues, but their propagation could transform them into a vast movement of change, with significant effects upon a much wider level.

The universal micro credit movements, from the food banks against hunger or distant learning, are successful instances of creative initiatives which today we call social innovation. In common they have the fact of having been raised from the mustering of local communities for the resolution of their own issues, the materialization of the values of altruism and solidarity, and the application of simple principles of organization and share their own resources.

Throughout my mandate I have tried to give my contribution for the valuation of social innovation as a tool for the change in mentalities, for the better allocation of available resources and, mainly, as a means to create opportunities to overcome poverty and social exclusion. I believe that everyone has the right to an opportunity to contribute towards the creation of wealth, and that this is possible through the improved use of available resources, either human or material.

Through the Route for Social Inclusion that I promoted, I became aware of instances of good practices to be replicated and disseminated in the whole country. This is the case of the Food Banks against Hunger, which during the current crisis have been performing a relevant role in the support for local communities and families.

The same can be said of the institutions of social solidarity which make an ever greater investment in the professional training of handicapped persons and contribute directly towards the creation of wealth, thus increasing their own income.

It is yet the case of voluntary organizations, dedicated to the development of new management skills in the private institutions of social solidarity or in the promotion of mutual aid and cooperation networks with the aim to share donated goods.

A good idea can result in a good opportunity; but, if it can be replicated in organized social networks, it can have extraordinary multiplying effects.

Social innovation is not in the isolated act, even if wilful, but rather in the capability, jointly and duly organized, to enable the mustering of resources, many times overlooked, for the resolution of the problems.

And what should be the State’s role in the development of such cooperative networks of social innovation?

Firstly, that it doesn’t view a citizens’ movement as a competitor or an adversary. On the contrary, the State must ease the progress of initiatives organized by the people, since these are able to arrive where and to whom the State is at times unable.

Secondly, the State must promote the best allocation of public resources, in order that a portion of these is not lost in the passages of bureaucracy and can revert to the benefit of needier persons.

Lastly, it is the State’s responsibility to provide local communities with the tools and opportunities required for their own development. The potential for innovation of the local communities can be inestimable, should there exist a good combination of public incentive, social responsibility and spirit of solidarity.

This is the true lever of social innovation: men and women, institutions and communities mustered for solidarity and organized to build a better, fairer and more cohesive society.

I can assert today that, a little all over the world, there is a new generation of social answers that tear away from traditional means of intervention. In each of our countries there are, certainly, initiatives of social innovation that may be called upon, but what is more important is that these may be identified, made known and disseminated throughout this great Iberian American Community, in order to enable benefiting our fellow citizens who face unemployment, poverty and social exclusion.

I leave you with a challenge: that a platform is set up for the dissemination of innovative experiences in the area of social inclusion within the Iberian American context. And that the Civic Forum, in the Mar del Plate Summit, in 2010, assesses its impact in the lives of our communities. I believe we will be agreeably surprised.

Thank you very much.