sustainable business and economic models (OECD, 2020c; Yunus and Biggeri, 2020). Nevertheless, SSE organisations have also been highly affected by the crisis. Thus, in several countries, subnational governments have been providing financial support to ensure that SSE actors could continue to provide needed services to the community (OECD, 2020c). In general, SSE organizations and their initiatives have specific features which make them particularly suitable as drivers for SDG localization processes (UNRISD, 2017; Lee, 2020), especially within integrated local systems, as compared to other organizations approaches. Among others:
SSE organizations are usually locally anchored and maintain a strong connection with the locality in which they are embedded, both in terms of positive contribution to the locality (Borzaga and Tortia, 2009; Birkhölzer, 2009), as well as in terms of the resources they use in their activities (Evers and Schulze-Boeing, 2001; Hynes, 2009; Pasetto, 2010; Di Domenico et al., 2010; Eversole et al., 2013).
Their proximity to problems makes them understand what works and what doesn’t in the local context, and thus are particularly well-suited to respond quickly to issues that arise in their local areas (OECD, 2020c).
Most SSE organizations, as per their business model, need to engage with different stakeholders. For example, SSE organizations active in providing social services usually have strong relations with the social service department of the local authority and other SSE organizations delivering complimentary services. Adopting a multi-stakeholder governance approach makes them inherently more capable of building relations with, and among, different stakeholders, as well as creating a shared view of development.
SSE organizations contribute to Sustainable Human Development (Scarlato, 2012; Biggeri et al., 2017) and in reaching the SDGs (Littlewood & Holt, 2018) not only via the services and products they offer, but also through the production and consumption processes they enable. Since the focus of their activity is not on profit maximisation, SSE organizations tend to conceive the concepts of efficiency and effectiveness by taking into account the different dimensions of social impact rather than only the economic dimension. For this reason, both their inputs, activities and outputs (products and services) tend to have qualities in terms of accessibility, inclusiveness, environmental sustainability, etc. that generate higher benefits to the locality compared to the same services/products delivered by non-SSE organizations. Moreover, since they often adopt multistakeholder and participatory governance processes, these benefits are also more widely distributed across society. For these reasons, SSE organizations are usually more efficient and equitable collectors, organizers and distributors of resources to solve social or environmental problems at the local level than other organizations.
All in all, SSE organizations are among the actors which prove to be of critical importance in the process of keeping together the three dimensions of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) at the local level. 2.2 Social and Territorial Cohesion as a driver for SDG localization Social and Territorial Cohesion aims at ensuring "better living conditions and quality of life with equal opportunities, oriented towards regional and local potentials, irrespective of where people live" (European 12
