As part of the Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC)’s Collaborative Research for Cooperative Resilience (CR2) initiative, NCBA CLUSA is pleased to announce a new project supporting enabling legal and regulatory environments for cooperatives, called the CLARITY 2.0 Working Group – Foundational Research project.
The Cooperative Law and Regulation Initiative (CLARITY) was developed collaboratively by OCDC members over 15 years ago with funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). CLARITY’s innovative toolkit is used by cooperative stakeholders, including development and legal professionals, government officials, and cooperative leaders in reviewing, updating, and advocating for more conducive legal frameworks for cooperatives. NCBA CLUSA is a staunch supporter of CLARITY and has helped cooperative movements in many developing countries with their cooperative law and regulation reform efforts using CLARITY tools and methodologies, including the CLARITY scorecard tool to assess cooperative laws.
Under NCBA CLUSA’s current USAID CDP project, Creating an Environment for Cooperative Expansion (CECE), NCBA CLUSA has worked with international consultants and local cooperative lawyers to conduct CLARITY cooperative law assessments in Guatemala, Peru, Tanzania, and Kenya. An analysis is almost complete in Ecuador and Madagascar’s cooperative law was assessed under the previous CDP. Legal and regulatory reform processes are at various stages in these countries, and NCBA CLUSA continues to support cooperative stakeholders in these efforts as part of CECE’s activities.
Through the CLARITY 2.0 Working Group – Foundational Research project, OCDC and NCBA CLUSA are learning from cooperative law and regulation experts and brainstorming how CLARITY can better address the challenges that cooperatives face today. This includes adapting CLARITY to modernize and expand its framework and incorporating lessons learned from recent and current CDP activities. Led by two CLARITY experts, the working group consists of participants from around the world with cooperative legal and regulatory expertise in a wide range of sectors. The report generated by this working group will inform the CLARITY 2.0 toolkit adaptations and improvements.
Stay tuned for future articles introducing the members of the CLARITY 2.0 Working Group! To learn more about OCDC’s CR2 partners and cooperative research projects, check out their blog.