Through valuable donations of money and time
the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada provides communities around the world with opportunities to:
- Grow co-operative enterprises
- Mobilize savings and loans
- Learn new skills
Discover the power of Co-operatives to build a better world!
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We help pave the way for resilient, self-determined futures.
Explore our ProjectsDiscover some of our featured
co-operative innovation around the world.
CDF Canada is closing the gap on gender inequality, promoting financial inclusion and strengthening the resilience and sustainability of co-op communities.
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Senegal 4R Nutrient Stewardship
Over 10 000 direct beneficiaries of Senegal are consistently impacted positively while growing more nutritious and marketable crops and improving food security. Local farmers, especially women, will have better chance to increase revenues, productivity and profit margins.
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Sierra Leone ACCESS
Mamie Conteh and her husband rely on their local credit union for small loans to increase the size of their rice fields. Today, Mamie is a model of success for her sound savings and borrowing habits. CDF Canada has a goal to bring credit union services within reach of 100,000 Sierra Leoneans, like Mamie, by 2025.
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Ghana 4R Nutrient Stewardship
4R Project covers four parts of Ghana: Kpandai, East Gonja, Nanumba South and Nanumba North and the project assists 30,000 small holder farmer families to have better yields mostly with Maiza, Soybeans, Groundnuts and Rice. The most important aim of the following project is to show how adopting more sustainable farming practices can increase the resilience, incomes and food security.
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Colombia Impact
Rural Colombian women, like Luisa Fernanda Padilla (left, with her parents), are finally earning income. They produce artisanal cheese for their cattle ranching association. Their husbands now help with household chores while they’re at work. Thanks to CDF Canada’s IMPACT project, more trailblazing women like her are entering the workforce in rural Colombia.
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Malawi Invest Co-op
Hampered by unpredictable rainfall, farmer members of Nyanja Co-operative in Malawi are negotiating better prices for their soya thanks to their training through CDF Canada’s INVEST Co-op Malawi project. The project helps over 50,000 men and women farmers learn conservation farming practices and minimal-loss post-harvest handling to improve and market their crops through co-operatives.
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Mongolia Invest Co-op
Learning how to tuft carpets created new income for Mongolian herder Munkhtur Bolormaa. Traditional herders like him must compete with larger wool producers, and declining income spells poorer nutrition and interrupted schooling. CDF Canada is training 3,000 women and men dairy and herder families in co-operative herd management, wool processing, and marketing services. The project also focuses on developing existing co-operatives to assist women and men herders’ ability to access new markets, extension services and low-cost quality inputs. Overgrazing and unsustainable herd size are all contributing factors to environmental issues in Mongolia. The project aims to reduce herd size while increasing productivity and value with each animal—ultimately reducing the environmental impact of the herders’ work.
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Peru Invest Co-op
Thanks to Isella Torres and other co-op members, farmers in Huachumo have learned to grow and market organic coffee and panella. They’re shifting focus away from liquor production, and creating more gender-equitable communities. CDF Canada’s INVEST Co-op Peru project brings needed training and production and marketing opportunities to small producers, and will benefit 4,091 farmers.
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Indonesia Invest Co-op
Siti Rafiah Darajat (pictured right) shows seaweed farmers that planting larger seedlings farther apart will produce more and better crops. Climate change causes unpredictable weather and damage to their equipment. CDF Canada helps farmers adopt resilient seaweed varieties, and employ more sustainable infrastructure so farmers can adapt to the challenges presented by climate change.
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Ethiopia 4R NUTRIENT STEWARDSHIP
The project is implemented in Ethiopia’s Menjar-Shenkora district on Northern Shewa Zone, Amhara National Regional State. 40,000 smallholder farmers, most likely women, are assisted with better growing crops such as wheat and teff. It will promote the empowerment of women farmers, with special emphasis on improving access to financial resources and agriculture technologies.
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Myanmar MyFINANCE
CDF Canada’s country managers Renia Salines and Yolanda Alim are reorganizing two financial co-operatives in Myanmar. There, many farmers are forced to borrow from informal lenders or take inputs on credit from suppliers charging high rates of interest. CDF Canada is supporting the development of sustainable co-operatives to bring needed financial services to 65,000 farmers.
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Philippines PREMIUM
Merle Yboa is one of 1,600 sari sari convenience store owners in CDF Canada’s Premium project. She took in her siblings and their children when Typhoon Yolanda destroyed their homes, and now she’s learning to purchase and sell micro insurance to help entrepreneurs like herself rebound from disaster. Her business and family are more resilient.
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Rwanda RCAG
Andre and Anastasie Samvora and their children are enjoying much better nutrition after learning new farming, business, and gender equality practices through CDF Canada’s Rwanda Co-operative Agricultural Growth project. Now completed, production and sale of rice and maize by participating farmers increased four-fold (432%), and post-harvest losses dropped by 79%.
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Ukraine Grain Storage and Marketing
"This project is a proud part of the rebirth of co-operative agriculture in Ukraine," says project manager Sergii Kurdytskyi. CDF Canada’s’s project in Ukraine is addressing constraints faced by small and medium grain farmers through the establishment of co-operative storage, marketing and handling of grain, to improve their market conditions and increase market activities.
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Canada Women’s Mentorship Program
Since taking part in CDF Canada’s Women’s Mentorship Program, Obenewaa Yeboah has improved practices at the small credit union she manages in Kumasi, Ghana. The number of dormant accounts has been lowered by one-third and delinquent loans are down 60%. So far, 227 women from 21 countries have been mentored at credit unions across Canada.
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News & Resources
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Women’s Mentorship Program Postponement
03.23.2020
READ MORE >In keeping with worldwide precautions and restrictions relative to COVID-19, the Co-operative Development Foundation of…
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COVID-19: CDF Canada’s response
03.16.2020
READ MORE >At the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada, we are sensitive to growing concerns about coronavirus…
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