Initiative

The Cooperative Law and Regulation Initiative

CLARITY’s main goal is to help national cooperative movements in developing countries create a legal and regulatory environment that enables cooperative businesses to flourish.

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About CLARITY

The Cooperative Law and Regulation Initiative, CLARITY, was created by the members of the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development. CLARITY grew from the shared experiences and convictions of OCDC’s members that outmoded legal systems were barriers to cooperative development in many parts of the world.

The goal of CLARITY is to support cooperative movements as they analyze and change legal and regulatory environments. The result? To create an environment that enables cooperative businesses to flourish.

This site provides the background, training and tools that cooperatives, cooperative development and non- governmental organizations, legal groups and other aid organizations need to address reform.

Projects

Since its beginnings the CLARITY Initiative has published four groundbreaking reports. This section focuses on these reports, which provide the foundation for a cooperative-led process to reform laws and regulations affecting cooperative development worldwide.

Introducing the CLARITY International Fellows

The U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC) has been a strong supporter of the Cooperative Law and Regulation Initiative (CLARITY) since its inception in 2005 by its member international cooperative development organizations. To adapt to changing times and challenges, the OCDC’s International Cooperative Research Group partnered with NCBA CLUSA to review CLARITY’s components and processes. This resulted in the creation of the CLARITY 2.0 Global Working Group, a group of 17 cooperative law experts from around the world who identified new and emerging issues in cooperative legal reform and evaluated current resources under the leadership of Dr. Willy Tadjudje and Edward Potter. The CLARITY International Fellowship was created in recognition and honor of the working group’s contributions.

The following persons have been designated as CLARITY International Fellows:

Maureen Gitau

Policy and Legislative Affairs Officer – USAID/ CLEAR Program, Global Communities, Kenya

Oscar Inocente Julca

NCBA CLUSA Country Representative and CDP Director, Peru

Carlos Alonso Naranjo

Professor, Popular and Solidarity Economics and Finance Master’s Program, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar

Morshed Mannan, Ph.D

Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute; Researcher, BlockchainGov, Italy

Danilo Eladio Gutierrez Fiori

Gutierrez Fiori, Executive Director, National Institute of Cooperativism (INACOOP)

Ronaldo Chaves Gaudio

Director, Gaudio Advocacia; Professor of Law, Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Minas Gerais

Claudia Paredes Castañeda

Titular Magistrate Judge, Court of Appeals of the Judicial Branch, Guatemala

Soledad T. (“Sally”) de la Vega-Cabangis

Corporate Attorney III, National Transmission Corporation, Philippines

Shanil S. Mayosa

former Head-Legal Service Unit of the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission, Tanzania

Rachel-Claire Okani Abengue

Former Vice-Rector, and Professor, University of Yaounde Faculty of Law, Cameroon

Santosh Kumar

Director of Legislation, ICA Global Office

Gustavo Alberto Sosa

Attorney, Law School Faculty, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sergio Reyes Lavega

Professor of Solidarity Economy, Cooperativism and Labor Relations, Argentina