A new agreement between the University of Malta and the Faculty of Social Welfare Services seeks to target social economy and the world of cooperatives, Rector Alfred Vella said.

Pro-Rector Godfrey Baldacchino said that the memorandum of understanding aimed to develop a programme of activities that would involve individuals in cooperative frameworks. The latter were initiatives where members were the primary stakeholders and reaped the benefits of income, employment or services, as well as investing in the cooperative with their own resources.

Prof. Vella and Prof. Baldacchino signed the agreement on behalf of the University of Malta, while FSWS was represented by chief executive officer Alfred Grixti and by its manager for social enterprise development, Mario Gerada.

The agreement was “the coming together of an educational facility and an organisation that feels that the cooperative model is a solution or at least an option to lift people out of poverty,” Prof. Baldacchino said.

The FSWS had approached the university with the intent to create the agreement, Mr Grixti said.

The agreement also sought to establish a relationship of cooperation in a range of social, economic and educational areas, the university said in a statement. The two institutions said they would work together towards providing consultancy services to governmental departments, non-governmental organisations and private social organisations.

They also said that they wanted to explore the possibility of creating joint ventures and initiatives for the development of programmes of higher education in social economy, social enterprise and cooperative learning, both within Maltese society and internationally.

In a statement, the FSWS said it aimed promote the empowerment of vulnerable persons in the pursuit of dignified lives and employment for them.

“This also includes supporting such persons in the setting up and running of cooperative societies,” it said.