Event Information

Join us on Thursday, June 30 at 8:30am EDT for a panel of local cooperative leaders and USAID staff from Haiti, Paraguay, and the Philippines as they discuss the relevance of cooperatives and their role in advancing USAID’s localization policy. Panelists will share their experiences with agriculture and financial cooperatives in the communities and countries where they live and work, highlighting how cooperatives by their very nature are local, democratic associations that offer a resilient, inclusive, and prosperous business model for the members they serve.

The U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC) and its members were delighted to showcase the impact of cooperatives in the development sector on Marketlinks throughout the month of June. This webinar concludes our month on cooperatives and localization, but we invite you to review the blogs, share your own cooperative impact experience, and further connect with OCDC and our members beyond this month.

We look forward to having you join us in the conversation!

Speakers:

Jay de Quiros
USAID/Philippines

Jay de Quiros is an Economic Growth Specialist at USAID’s Philippine office. He manages projects on economic policy reforms, agriculture cooperative capacity building and livelihood development, funding access for social enterprises, and enhancing the non-government/civil society organization sector.

Hazel Maysastado
Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative

Hazel May A. Sastado is currently the Business Development Manager of the largest agri-based cooperative in the Philippines, Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative (SIDC). She also works as a Learning Resource Organization Project Manager for the USAID-funded Generating Rural Opportunities by Working with Cooperatives (GROW Coop) project in partnership with Agriterra. She is an Agripooler on Cooperative Governance, and she also provides business advise to agricultural cooperatives.

Alfred Fast
Paraguayan Federation of Producer Cooperatives

Alfred Fast Schmidt is the President of the Paraguayan Federation of Producer Cooperatives (FECOPROD). In addition, he holds the position of President of the Paraguayan Roundtable of Sustainable Beef, which is part of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. Both private sector entities are members of the Alliance for Sustainable Development, a program implemented by WWF.

Adriana Casati
USAID/Paraguay

Mrs. Casati serves as the Program, Resources and Performance Director, and is the de facto Deputy Country Representative for USAID/Paraguay. She oversees program implementation and manages the financial analysis, budget, procurement, human resources, monitoring, evaluation and learning, and development outreach and communications teams. 

Marie-Renee Vertus
USAID/Haiti

Marie-Renee Vertus is a Senior Financial Sector Advisor with USAID/Haiti. She manages a broad portfolio which focuses on strengthening and incentivizing the local financial sector to improve access to finance for underserved micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Haiti, particularly in semi-urban and rural areas.  Ms. Vertus is USAID-Haiti’s Liaison to the US Development Finance Corporation. Ms. Vertus holds a bachelor’s in economics and a Master of Business Administration degree.

Claude Clodomir
USAID ATTAIN

Claude Clodomi serves as Chief of Party for the ATTEINDRE (ATTAIN in English), a USAID-funded activity designed to provide targeted support micro-, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to become bankable enterprises. Claude previously served as the Chief of Party and Country Director for the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) in Haiti from 2013 to 2020. Claude holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Purdue University and a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbia University.

Paul Hazen (Moderator)
Overseas Cooperative Development Council

Paul Hazen became executive director of the Overseas Cooperative Development Council in February 2012. Previously, he represented one of the member organizations and served as OCDC’s board chair and as a board member. One of his most-recent initiatives with OCDC is the formation of its Research Group, whose mission is to research, formulate and share effective strategies for the development, performance, and growth of cooperatives in developing countries.