Red Comparte: Consolidating an Economy That Cares, Measures, and Transforms

Advances in the Social-Environmental Audit System and the Commitment to Agroecology with a Woman’s Face

Feature Story: Red Comparte | By Tiffany Trejo

The Network Today: From Alternative to Consolidation

As a true “community of learning and action for an economy oriented toward buen vivir in Latin America,” Red Comparte has been weaving economic and productive alternatives since 2010 to guarantee dignified living conditions for historically excluded populations. Over these years, this effort has taken a qualitative leap, moving toward a stage of strategic consolidation aimed at regional impact.

To bring this vision to life, the network has a clear roadmap: its 2024–2027 Strategic Plan, which promotes seven structural changes aimed, among other things, at strengthening the self-management capacities of Producer Organizations (POs), increasing commercialization, and fostering a culture of continuous evaluation. This evolution is grounded in tools and methodologies developed from experience, such as the Strategic Reading of the Territory (LET), which makes it possible to identify and plan alternatives with real potential for comprehensive transformation from within the communities themselves.

How do we turn the historic aspiration for a more humane and ecological economy into an operational and measurable reality in the territories?

As a living, interconnected ecosystem, Red Comparte operates with active participation in the structure of the Conference of Provincials in Latin America and the Caribbean (CPAL) and its Social Centers Network (RCS). At the same time, it develops strategic alliances with a wide range of actors—foundations, networks, companies, and universities—across the Americas and Europe. It has also expanded its collaboration with the academic sector, where institutions such as the Ibero campuses in Mexico City and Puebla, and ITESO in Guadalajara, together with universities such as Deusto and ESADE in Spain, serve as vital bridges for applied research and the opening of fair markets. In parallel, it continues to strengthen its work with international cooperation partners such as Canadian Jesuits International (CJI), Jesuitenmission (MJN), ALBOAN, and the Alternative and Solidarity Economy Network (REAS Euskadi).

The Rigor Behind Hope: Auditing to Transform

For Red Comparte, the viability of an economic-productive initiative is determined by its ability to sustain seven fundamental traits: territorial reach, collective construction, gender equity, decent work, autonomy, care for our Common Home, and the integration of biocultural diversity.

Under the premise that measuring is a necessary path to transformation, the network has created and implemented the Social-Environmental Audit System (SASA), which annually evaluates the degree to which the seven traits are being implemented in economic-productive initiatives.

Working in Tandem: Mutual Trust as the True Engine of the Social-Environmental Audit

Red Comparte is made up of 18 Social Centers (SCs) within CPAL’s social sector. The SCs work with economic initiatives (EIs) involving approximately 56,000 families in 12 countries across Latin America. The implementation of SASA stands out for its collaborative approach. The evaluation is carried out through a “tandem” dynamic, forming pairs made up of one representative from a social center and one from the producer organization. This mutual accompaniment ensures a transparent process marked by closeness and shared growth.

🔗 Resource of interest: We invite you to take a closer look at the metrics used by downloading the SASA 25 Document – Indicators

The 2024 SASA annual report, presented in April 2025, showed concrete progress in the care of our Common Home, the integration of different forms of knowledge, and the generation of decent work, providing a clear path for continuing to strengthen collective construction in the territories.

The Cultural and Ecological Root: Transition and Worldview

In the face of socio-environmental challenges, Red Comparte is promoting a decisive transition toward agroecology. To support this process at the community level, Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are being implemented. This methodology functions as an “act of trust” that connects the work of producer families and consumers, certifying ethical and ecological quality directly from the field.

During 2025, the PGS methodology successfully expanded into regions of El Salvador and Peru, while a key gathering was also held in Paraguay to strengthen its governance. The vitality of this process was reflected in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, where the KANOJ association and its agroecological center hosted the first module of the Regional School of Agroecology. With the enthusiastic participation of 25 women producers and 10 men producers, tools such as TAPE (Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation) were used to strengthen the comprehensive sustainability of the plots.

Equity in leadership and multi-stakeholder coordination mark the new horizons for expanding community agroecology.

🎬 Voices from the Territory: Join the communities in Guatemala during their participatory certification process through these visual journeys:

Video 1: Fieldwork in Chajbal
Video 2: Community Dialogue and Consensus
Video 3: Planning Future Plots

In envisioning the future of the PGS, the communities identified valuable challenges that could further enrich the process. They set the goal of integrating the follow-up committees equitably, ensuring 50–50 participation between men and women. They also highlighted the importance of rotating leadership in order to foster new forms of leadership, and underscored the need to actively involve external actors, joining efforts with churches, municipal governments, and local health managers.

Women, Care, and Territory: An Economy with Dignity

Every truly sustainable economic model finds its greatest strength in making women’s work visible and valued. The initiatives accompanied by Red Comparte take a transformative approach, promoting gender equity in a comprehensive way and recognizing women’s rights.

A central milestone of 2025 was the network’s collective process of building its Common Gender Framework (CGF). Facilitated in partnership with the Ibero-American University of Puebla, nine Social Centers contributed rich reflections on the solidarity economy, the care economy, and new masculinities. In spaces for territorial dialogue, such as the gathering in Quiché (Guatemala), the men who participated expressed their firm commitment to actively sharing household responsibilities, recognizing that the well-being of the home is a responsibility shared by all its members. In this way, the tending of gardens, the preservation of medicinal plants, and the care economy take their rightful place as the essential foundation of productive initiatives.

🎬 For Reflection: The impact of women on the solidarity economy and the power of our daily decisions are told through these audiovisual materials:

Rural Women and Alternative Economies in Latin America

Alignment and Future Projection

This methodological, organizational, and human framework embodies Red Comparte’s deep commitment to integral ecology and to the Fourth Universal Apostolic Preference (UAP) of the Society of Jesus: care for our Common Home.

Looking ahead, 2025 established mechanisms to support the economic viability of the economic-productive initiatives and the sustainability of the network. For example, the launch of the Comparte–Tinidia Financing Fund gave organizations such as APPROCAP in Peru and Chabtic in Mexico the opportunity to strengthen their production and their access to fair markets. At the same time, the culture of monitoring was strengthened through the Strategic Planning Monitoring System (SISMORed), designed to guide progress toward fulfilling the goals set for the period through 2027.

With the maturity it has achieved, the network now takes on, among other things, the strategic challenge of strengthening its alliances with the private sector and consolidating autonomous commercialization channels. With auditable indicators and real faces, Red Comparte shows that building an alternative economy is a viable and hope-filled path, as long as human dignity and the sacredness of the land remain at the center.

For a detailed analysis of the fruits and lessons of the past year, download the Executive Summary of the 2025 Comparte Report

Telling these stories means, in essence, bearing witness to integral ecology in motion. The maturity Red Comparte reached in 2025 offers a vivid illustration that the transformation of our Common Home flourishes in the land we cultivate, in the hands we value, and in the alliances we choose to weave. Its journey over the past year offers an unmistakable source of inspiration. Validating a solidarity-based, just economy with a woman’s face is now a tangible and auditable reality. By sharing these achievements, we renew the certainty that true sustainable development is written every day, close to the land and always conjugated in the plural.