In many respects, World War II was the beginning of the modern era in international development. It signalled the last gasp for the old international colonial order, and from the worldwide devastation grew a new awareness of the inter-connectedness of the world's people.

The Co-operative Union of Canada was a national organization engaged in government relations and public policy, co-operative development and communications on behalf of its membership across Canada and was to merge with the Co-op College of Canada in 1987 to form the Canadian Co-operative Association. The CUC's leadership emerged from the war years with a renewed commitment to the use of the co-operative model to improve conditions among the economically disadvantaged. This went hand in hand with a growing interest in international matters, particularly on the part of A.B. McDonald, who was then CUC executive director. One of the first initiatives was the decision in 1945 to start the CARE program (Co-operative for American Remittances to Europe) in Canada. Over a two year period, CUC provided a full time staff person and succeeded in shipping more than $1.4 million worth of food and clothing to the most seriously devastated corners of Europe.

Mr. MacDonald's concern about global food issues also led him to take on the national charimanship of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund and to be part of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Standing Committee on Rural Life.

When CDF was created in 1947 it was initially intended to undertake research and educational projects but over time it was to become the focus for nternational development activities. The transition took place following a decade in which there were frequent national and international visitors at the CUC offices interested in applying co-operative methods to alleviate suffering in the developing world.

During the same era, the CUC also sent Canadian co-operators to Asia and Africa to assist in the development of co-operatives. In 1958 Alexander Laidlaw returned from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, to assume the executive directorship of the CUC. He brought with him a first-hand understanding of the developing world and the potential for co-operatives in development, not to mention a personal commitment to support the development of co-operatives around the world, and to use the abundant resources available in Canada to help those co-operatives help their members work their way out of poverty.

In 1962 Co-operatives Everywhere, or Co-ever, was started as a project of the Co-operative Development Foundation. It set out to assist in the development of co-operatives in the British West Indies and in Canada's North. Though it was hampered from the beginning by a lack of funds, it was, in a sense, the precursor of the current international program. It also proved conclusively that co-operatives can make a difference to the social and economic fortunes of struggling communities. The co-operatives in Canada's North continue to make a significant contribution in that region, as do co-operatives in the Caribbean.

Initially the co-operative development efforts of the CUC were distinct from the international efforts of the credit union system. In 1974 , finding itself increasingly involved in overseas development work, the National Association of Canadian Credit Unions asked to channel its growing development donations through CDF - a registered charity. It was the first step toward the ultimate amalgamation of the two programs.

That same year, a conference involving co-operatives, non-governmental development organizations and CIDA explored the potential for a co-ordinated international co-operative development effort. The major response to this conference was the creation, in 1975, of an international development program, with permanent staff, under the CDF banner.

In 1977 a task force initiated by CIDA suggested a need for still more coordination among co-operatives where international development was concerned. The negotiations that followed resulted in the formal incorporation, in 1979, of the credit union development program into CDF.

Over the decade that followed, the development activities of CDF continued to grow, both in scope and sophistication. In 1984, the Board of CUC, which also served as the board of the Co-operative Development Foundation, decided make CDF into a dedicated fundraising organization, and transferred the management of overseas projects and programs to an operating unit of the CUC.

From humble beginnings when the Foundation struggled to raise a few hundred dollars, CDF has grown to become an organization capable of raising $1 million per year. More than that, it has come to represent so much that is good about Canadian co-operatives and credit unions. CDF is a living symbol of the principle of co-operation among co-operatives. It brings co-operatives from every region and sector together around a common cause, and through CDF, Canadian organizations reach out to co-operatives in the developing world. For many people, staff and leaders alike, the daily reality of co-operatives and credit unions centres on business imperatives - the need to compete and grow. CDF's work is a dynamic reminder that there are many other sides to co-operatives, one which brings people together to work toward a common goal, another which provides goods and services to people that would not otherwise have access to them, and a side that says poverty is not inherited, nor should it be a life sentence, but can be vanquished when people work together for the common good.

Canadians have every right to be proud of the co-operative institutions we have built in this country. We can be especially proud of the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada which, for 60 years has been a vessel for the selfless generosity of Canadian co-operative people.