CHF International is applying a variety of existing best practices and methodological tools to help cooperative stakeholders improve their performance through the Innovating, Measuring and Promoting Poverty Alleviation by Cooperatives in Transition Societies (IMPPACTS) program. Implemented in Bosnia, Mongolia, Rwanda and the Philippines, this initiative is working with cooperative organizations to develop enabling environments for the growth of cooperatives businesses in each respective country.

In the Philippines, specifically, CHF International has been working with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), the main government body in charge of cooperatives in the Philippines, strengthening its regulatory capacity and increasing its transparency and efficiency.

Cooperative businesses comprise close to 13% of the national gross domestic product in the Philippines, with more than 30,000 active cooperatives throughout the country. In 2003, the sector directly and indirectly employed more than 1.5 million Filipinos. The cooperative business model clearly offers the promise of employing thousands more with guidance and expansion of the sector.

CHF has been working with USAID and major stakeholders in the cooperative sector by providing support to the CDA in several key areas, including improving CDA's registry of active cooperatives and developing a Standard Chart of Accounts and performance standards for non-credit cooperatives.

Through these activities, the CDA will be able to effectively and efficiently track performance of cooperatives and assist them in further developing their attributes and turning their weaknesses into strengths.