Author: Aneta Quraishy, Senior Expert, Diesis Network
At a time when artificial intelligence, data-driven innovation, and digital platforms are rapidly reshaping global economies, Europe faces critical questions regarding who controls technology, how digital markets are governed, and how technological value is distributed. These challenges go beyond mere competitiveness, directly impacting Europe’s strategic autonomy, democratic resilience, and ability to foster a human-centred digital future. While the European Union has made strides through regulatory packages like the AI Act and the Data Governance Act, a vital challenge remains: translating these macro policy ambitions into a digital economy where the benefits are shared by all, and where communities have real agency over the technologies that shape their lives.
This is where the social economy steps in as a major economic and societal force. Comprising over 4.3 million entities — including associations, cooperatives, mutual benefit societies, foundations, and social enterprises — the European social economy provides at least 11.5 million jobs and contributes a massive turnover of 912 billion euros. To ensure this vast ecosystem is not left behind in the digital transition, the Digital and Data Action Plan (DDAP) has been established as a comprehensive strategic framework. Rather than viewing technology adoption as a purely technical exercise, the DDAP is designed to transition social economy organisations from passive users of digital tools to active co-creators of a fair, inclusive, and democratic digital and data economy.
A Participatory Blueprint: How the DDAP Was Compiled
The development of the DDAP stands as a testament to the cooperative principles it seeks to promote, relying on a deeply collaborative, bottom-up methodology rather than a top-down mandate. The overall conceptualisation of the action plan was led by the Diesis Network, drawing on vital research and analytical contributions from Tiresia-Polimi. From this foundation, the drafting, review, and refinement of the plan became a collective effort driven by the broader DO Impact community of social economy enabling organisations and small-to-medium enterprises.
To ensure the plan reflected diverse, real-world needs, the consortium established a highly participatory consultation process that actively engaged approximately eighty entities. Throughout this process, participating organisations were given opportunities to submit detailed written feedback on the proposed objectives and strategic actions. These feedback loops resulted in a final plenary discussion where participants debated, refined, and ultimately reached a consensus on the priority actions to include in the final document.
This collaborative legacy is carried forward by the DO Impact Consortium, which unites key regional and national organisations — including Fondazione Piemonte Innova, Torino Social Impact, Cluster Digital de Catalunya, Taula del Tercer Sector de Catalunya, the Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia, the Lithuanian Social Business Association, Politecnico di Milano–Tiresia, and Coompanion Gothenburg — all committed to turning this shared agenda into sustained, practical action across Europe.
Driving a Shift from Digital Adoption to Digital Agency
The ultimate purpose of the DDAP is to drive a fundamental paradigm shift within the social economy, moving organisations from basic digital adoption to true digital agency. This means empowering social economy actors to actively shape technology, manage data ethically, and design digital ecosystems that strengthen democratic participation, autonomy, and collective value creation. To achieve this ambitious vision, the plan is structured around four complementary lines of action that address the systemic barriers currently facing the sector.
The first line of action focuses on Policy and Advocacy, which aims to integrate the social economy into strategic European digital and data policy. By reducing the administrative and regulatory burdens of compliance, the plan seeks to help social economy SMEs turn regulatory requirements into competitive advantages and foundations for trust. This line also advocates for systemic “Tech for Good” models, establishing ethical data governance frameworks that position social economy organisations as trusted digital intermediaries between citizens, public authorities, and emerging technology platforms.
The second line of action addresses Capacity and Human Capital through targeted upskilling and mentoring. Recognising that digital transformation requires people-centred management, this area focuses on equipping local enabling organisations to serve as digital capacity hubs. It outlines tailored digital maturity pathways for SMEs to help them safely navigate advanced technologies like AI, while establishing open-source digital knowledge repositories and peer learning networks to facilitate continuous knowledge sharing across generations and sectors.
The third line of action targets Infrastructure and Resource Mobilisation to ensure sustainable scaling and appropriate funding. The DDAP advocates for the development of community-driven, open-source, and collectively governed digital infrastructures that offer viable alternatives to highly concentrated proprietary platforms. Furthermore, it aims to strengthen the sector’s evidence base through common impact measurement and “Impact Intelligence” tools, while actively mobilising the social and impact investment ecosystem to provide tailored financial instruments for digital social innovation.
The fourth and final line of action, Ecosystem Synergies, builds a collaborative culture of data sharing, interoperability, and redistribution. This area focuses on improving data literacy and establishing shared data commons where data is treated as a common good, preventing the concentration of data value in the hands of a few dominant platforms. By facilitating trusted data altruism models under the Data Governance Act and building permanent, cross-border cooperation networks, the DDAP ensures that social economy organisations can seamlessly collaborate and replicate proven digital innovations.
Ultimately, the DO Impact DDAP establishes that true digital progress should not be measured merely by the sophistication of the technologies developed, but by who participates in their creation, who retains agency over their use, and how the resulting value is governed and shared for the common good of society.
You can read and download the full DDAP here.