Doug O’Brien has been at the helm of the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA) since 2018, having previously served in key roles at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development and the White House Rural Council. We caught up with him in Seoul at the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA)’s 33rd World Cooperative Congress in December to find out more about NCBA CLUSA’s priorities for the year ahead. The world congress was an opportunity for cooperators from around the world to explore the meaning of the cooperative identity in the context of the global challenges, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and growing inequalities.
“The [cooperative] identity is as relevant today as it’s ever been,” O’Brien said. “As a cooperative community, we face some really generational challenges around inequality, around climate change and the nature of work, the cooperative identity, the shared values, the shared principles are more relevant. I think the theme of the World Congress this year [2021] is very timely for the cooperative community to be able to meet today’s challenges. I think we really need to deepen our understanding, and, most importantly, we need to act on our cooperative identity and on the values of equity, of solidarity, of democracy. Now’s the time so that more people can be involved in the solutions.
“The only way that, as a global community, we’re going to be able to conquer many of the challenges we have today is if more people are truly participating in the solution.”
“The only way that, as a global community, we’re going to be able to conquer many of the challenges we have today is if more people are truly participating in the solution.” – Doug O’Brien, president and CEO, NCBA CLUSA
Over the last couple of years, NCBA CLUSA has been campaigning for revisiting the cooperative identity. “We know that about every 30 years since 1937, the cooperative community has done some type of revision on the identity,” O’Brien said.
“Professor McPherson in 1995 made it clear that he thought the principles were something that that could be revisited while the values are probably something meant to be more permanent. So I think it’s exciting that the cooperative community is looking at the cooperative values and the principles in today’s context. What that will mean—as we spend time [on this] as the ICA community—we’ll find out, as people engage in this really important conversation.”
O’Brien was the rapporteur of the World Cooperative Congress sessions called “Committing to the Cooperative Identity for the Survival of the Planet.” He also got to observe some of the pre-conference events on cooperative research and law.
“Right now what I’m seeing is a lot of energy in this moment, for really looking at what the cooperative identity can mean, in terms of how it can inspire us and that’s really important,” he said. “But the most important thing is that we actually act. That we, as a cooperative community, distinguish the way that we treat our members, our workers, the environment, people in the community. And I’m seeing so many amazing examples across the world of innovative cooperatives, filling social and economic needs, like no other type of business could.”
One big challenge for cooperatives remains communicating what the movement describes as “the cooperative difference” to non-members and the broader public. How does O’Brien think co-ops can improve on this?
“We have to keep working together to tell our stories,” he said, adding that some of the campaigns led by the International Cooperative Alliance, such as 25 Voices and Co-op Cinema, have helped to sharpen the cooperative message so that more people really understand what cooperatives are.
“We have to be innovative in our communication, just as we would in any other sector. And so we have to be willing to adapt very quickly. And for certain audiences, we also have to show the numbers … we have to demonstrate—whether that’s by using the SDGs or other metrics—that co-ops get better outcomes for people, for the environment, for communities.”
Having worked in the Senate, House of Representatives and two state governors, O’Brien is no stranger to advocating before government stakeholders. For the past two years, NCBA CLUSA has been busy engaging with legislators and government officials to ensure that co-ops are able to access federal COVID-19 relief funds, making sure that the sector is expressly eligible for some of the assistance programs, and ensuring the eligibility of co-ops for small business financing. Co-ops are also part of a program to help socially disadvantaged farmers.
“I think we’re in a moment where many in government are really looking for businesses to do more, to get better social outcomes. There are a lot of people in the U.S. government who understand that cooperatives have been doing that for generations. But then there are a lot of other people who don’t understand, so that’s our task at NCBA CLUSA. And I think it’s the task of the cooperative community to tell policymakers and government officials that co-op distinction and again, what the co-op identity really means.”
As for 2022, O’Brien says NCBA CLUSA’s priorities for the year ahead will be to ensure that co-ops have access to the resources available as the government begins to put rules around the legislation, to make sure these rules really make sense for co-ops.
Another priority will be strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion within the cooperative community and working with other stakeholders to promote cooperatives as people-centered businesses that can build more inclusive economies.
Another priority will be strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion within the cooperative community and working with other stakeholders to promote cooperatives as people-centered businesses that can build more inclusive economies.
“On that note, we were very interested in the conversation around the potential revision of the cooperative identity and in October 2019, our board adopted a resolution that diversity, equity and inclusion should be more expressed and understood within the cooperative identity,” he said.
“I’m engaged in a lot of interesting conversations on what that might mean,” O’Brien added. “I don’t think we know that yet but there are a lot of people in the international cooperative community who are interested in making sure that the co-op identity is very expressive about how inclusive co-ops really are.”