Colombia Pérez Muñoz

Colombia Pérez Muñoz is Director of the Institute of Social Economy and Cooperativism (INDESCO) at the Cooperative University of Colombia, which provides training, research and consultancy services in solidarity-based entrepreneurship and social innovation to public, private and solidarity-based organisations at national and international levels.

She is Director of the UNESCO Chair on Social and Solidarity Economy for the 2026–2030 period. She is an active member of the RULESCOOP, UNICOSSOL, ICA, RIPESS and GSEF networks and Editor of the journal Cooperativismo & Desarrollo.

She has participated in a number of projects, including the Erasmus Mundus Programme Project (York St John University, 2020), Enhancing Study and Practice of the Social Economy in Higher Education; Organizing Workers in the Informal Economy of Selected African and Latin American Countries: The Potential of Trade Union and Cooperative Partnerships (ODI–ILO, 2021); Plataforma de Incubación de Emprendimientos y Redes Colaborativas de Economía Popular, Social y Solidaria con Enfoque Territorial – Incubepss (University of Quilmes, Costa Rica Institute of Technology and University of Managua, 2024–2025); and Support for the Associativity for Peace Agenda through the Development of Solidarity Territories with the Government of Colombia (2023–2025), among others.

She received the Award for Outstanding Teaching and Research Career at the 12th Research and Teaching Awards in the Field of Participatory Organisations, presented by the Complutense University of Madrid (Madrid, 2023).

AREAS OF INTEREST: Cooperative management; cooperative education; cooperative entrepreneurship; social innovation; and research on the social and solidarity economy.