Weaving Agribusinesses Built on Partnerships and Innovation

The USAID Philippines Cooperative Development Program (CDP) case competition focuses on our program’s development of the Rural Development Hub (RDH) model, which was fostered through both informal and deliberate applications of the Collaboration Learning and Adapting (CLA) to strengthen existing gaps within the Government of Philippines agricultural cooperative sector. In our work with Philippine cooperatives, our team recognized how the South Korean cooperative model works and identified this as an opportunity to pilot new initiative to evolve (and strengthen) a number of cooperatives by applying this approach in which CLA principles are embedded. By engaging with 17 pilot cooperatives, CDP developed an evidence-based platform to expand this initiative, demonstrating a successful model that can be replicated by the Government of the Philippines to expand our program's reach and impact. The case study illustrates the use of CLA approaches to create actionable change. This is built off a pause and reflect strategy focusing on internal collaboration while weaving in aspects of knowledge management, developing networks and relationships and scenario planning to implement the RDH model. Finally, by using CLA for this approach it built the management capacities of the cooperative leadership through the RDH model and, through their expansion of service deliveries under this pilot, increased the agricultural production, access to finance along with other service to their members.