The Department for International Development (DFID) agrees Strategic Grant Agreements (SGAs) with UK civil society organizations which have the potential to work constructively and strategically with DFID in helping to reduce poverty. SGAs aim to contribute to a stronger, better informed and more effective UK community for international development. The agreements provide funding and set out clear and specific outcomes.

The three year SGA between the Co-operative College and DFID has the following goal, purpose and intended outcomes:

Goal
A better informed UK Co-operative Movement, able to make a more effective strategic contribution to international development.

Purpose
To build the UK Co-operative Movement’s knowledge of international development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); to develop the contribution of co-operative societies and institutions to this, and to utilise the co-op’s specific advantage in order to influence co-ops and other organisations globally.

Outcomes include:
The Co-operative movement (both institutionally as societies, the membership and customers) will be more aware of the nature of global poverty and the MDGs; DFID’s mission and how it works; the role of other players in development; what co-operatives can do to help people out of poverty; and specifically what the UK movement and consumers can do to help achieve the MDGs.

An increased capacity of the co-operative movement to design and deliver appropriate and effective help to co-operatives in the south. A fundamental aspect of this is connections with and ability to influence international co-operative organisations and governments.

New learning materials, this website, capacity building and sharing information and knowledge will be the methods used to get the co-operative message across.