Our Cooperative Approach
CDF Canada offers hope and opportunity to some of the most impoverished communities in the world, by identifying and providing sustainable business solutions, knowledge, and skills to co-operatives in developing countries.
For over 75 years, we’ve helped to create jobs and opportunities, mobilize savings and loans, reduce vulnerability, and improve nutrition and livelihoods. Through our partnerships, we have enabled women and men to govern their cooperatives democratically and gain access to opportunities and resources. In the past decade alone, CDF Canada has implemented over 120 projects in 32 countries, positively impacting the lives of over 21,564,962 people.
Approach
Our approach to building sustainable and resilient communities focuses on three central themes:
- Addressing gender inequality and socio-economic differences is the only way for communities to create truly inclusive and empowering spaces.
- Providing financial assistance via credit unions, allows for financial inclusion, even amongst the most vulnerable people with limited or no credit access.
- Applying an enduring lens of environmental sustainability to climate change leads to community resilience and a more prosperous future.
Our Approach
- Enhancing Business Planning and Growth
CDF Canada helps co-operatives generate income. We provide technical assistance to design business plans that increase the value of the cooperative enterprises, working with local partner organizations to help smallholder farmers, traders, and producers. By identifying and responding to market opportunities, supported by research and data, we’re able to establish and strengthen cooperative and credit union enterprises.
- Strengthening Capacity
CDF Canada works with individuals and communities to build their skills and create economic opportunities based on cooperative principles. We mobilize individuals to learn innovative tools, skills, and approaches, including marketing, negotiation, agricultural production, and gender equality framework.
- Enabling Policy and Regulation
CDF Canada works directly with co-operative representatives and government officials to create and improve policy and regulatory environments for credit unions and other financial intermediaries such as farmers and agricultural producers, and micro, small, and medium-sized co-operatives, and enterprises.
- Mobilizing Knowledge and Learning
CDF Canada is a learning organization that continuously improves its work and the work of its partners. We empower our project partners and their co-operative members to identify training opportunities and improve their operational efficiencies. Additionally, we employ a Results-Based Management approach to projects, focusing on outcomes, performance measurement, learning, and adaptation.