Mali RPCV Bertrand H. Laurent joins National Cooperative Business Association's CLUSA International Program
Africa/Caribbean Aid Expert Joins NCBA
For Immediate Release
Contact: Art Jaeger
(202) 383-5462
ajaeger@ncba.coop
Washington, D.C.—Bertrand H. Laurent, who has 25 years of experience in international development with a focus on Africa and the Caribbean, has joined the National Cooperative Business Association's CLUSA International Program as development director. NCBA's international program works in developing countries to lift people and communities out of poverty by fostering cooperatives and other group businesses.
Laurent will oversee NCBA's process of designing new programs and partnerships, as well as applying for grants and contracts from the Agency for International Development and other U.S. and multilateral agencies. He will also work to connect NCBA's international work to its domestic membership, made up all types of cooperatives and organizations that support cooperatives.
Laurent comes to NCBA from the Africa-America Institute, where he managed the organization's two largest programs. He has more than 23 years of experience in Africa and the Caribbean designing and managing programs to strengthen community-based institutions and civil society organizations.
Early in his career Laurent served in the Peace Corps in Mali and established the first Peace Corps program in Haiti. He directed a USAID-funded project in Senegal that developed and tested credit models for small business and village organizations. This project resulted in the creation of the Credit Agency for Private Enterprise, a borrower-owned small-business lending agency that continues to operate and cover its costs 14 years later.
Laurent also worked in Madagascar, developing criteria for integrated conservation-development grants, and established a grants management unit for Madagascar's National Parks Management Agency. Returning to Haiti during the military coup and international embargo, he worked to strengthen community-based organizations and, after the U.S. military intervention, directed a USAID-funded civil society project.
Laurent, who now lives in Rockville, Md., fills a new position at NCBA. Jim Cawley, vice president for international development, said Laurent's appointment should improve NCBA's ability to seek out and obtain federal grants to carry out its mission in developing countries.
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Headquartered in Washington, the National Cooperative Business Association represents cooperatives across all sectors of the economy, including agriculture, food retailing, childcare, credit unions, housing, healthcare, energy, and telecommunications. NCBA's CLUSA International Program currently has 25 cooperative and group business development projects operating in 18 countries.
