Philippines


Philippines: Strengthening the Power of Cooperatives

In an effort to help reverse these trends, CHF International has been working through the IMPPACTS program with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), the main government body in charge of cooperatives in the Philippines, to strengthen its regulatory capacity and increase its transparency and efficiency.

 
Cooperative businesses comprise close to 13 percent of the national gross domestic product in the Philippines, and the sector clearly offers the promise of employing thousands more with guidance and expansion.
 
Despite a mandate to regulate and supervise all cooperative activity in the country, the CDA’s function has largely been limited to the registration of cooperatives, because no further work is possible without basic measurement standards and tools.
 
CHF has been working with USAID and major stakeholders in the cooperative sector to support the CDA in establishing such standards. In 2007, the CDA launched the Cooperative Information System (CIS) with the assistance of CHF International and the global technology services company Accenture.
 
CIS is a web-based database that can be accessed in real time by any of the CDA’s 15 extension centers throughout the country. Through the CIS, the CDA can accurately track and measure each cooperative’s annual organizational and financial status and offer appropriate guidance.