Canadian Co-operative Association

Objet publié

This project supports 275 volunteer placements, and intends to capture the experience and expertise of skilled Canadian volunteers to improve the economic and/or social wellbeing of the poorest, most marginalized and vulnerable people, particularly women and girls, with a view to contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. These volunteers work to increase the capacity of developing country partners to deliver sustainable development results in response to local needs. In addition to increasing engagement of Canadians in international development and key global issues, this project aims to increase the performance of developing country partners to deliver more inclusive, innovative, and environmentally sustainable initiatives that advance gender equality. Cooperatives and credit union are vital tools to provide access to economic empowerment for poor and marginalized populations, in developing countries around the world. Project activities include: (1) recruiting and training skilled and experienced volunteers on gender equality and their volunteer placement; (2) providing training to primary co-operatives on women’s economic empowerment, inclusion, environmental sustainability, governance, production, business practices, management and advocacy, value chains, and market access; (3) providing training to individual producers on improved agriculture and business practices, literacy, and financial literacy, soil management and erosion control; (4) developing a training curriculum to strengthen the technical and institutional capacity of the partner towards provision of quality cooperative education, training, research, innovations and community outreach services, particularly for women and girls, that will widen the opportunities to the cooperative sector; (5) providing technical assistance for cooperatives to invest in developing strong, inclusive management systems and accounting models e.g. budgeting, internal and external accounting; and (6) establishing a Strategic Innovation Fund enabling volunteers to facilitate the initiation of innovative volunteer-led initiatives to create products, services, processes or tools to support the inclusion of the most vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls, in program activities.