SAN JOSE: CUNA Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan and Senior Vice President of the League of Southeastern Credit Unions and Affiliates Jared Ross shared best practices and key principles in lobbying during the World Council of Credit Union’s Lobbying and Governmental Affairs Workshop on May 21 and 22 in San José, Costa Rica.
Lobbying is a process, not an event. This was a key message for the 98 credit union executives and board members learning successful strategies for engaging with policymakers and developing their own grassroots advocacy campaigns.
“World Council promotes positive change by leveraging the knowledge of our credit union family and connecting our members in the United States with those in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Victor Corro, World Council vice president of member services. “Jared and Ryan demonstrated that elected officials who understand the credit union industry are much more likely to support our mission. Credit unions around the world must actively engage in advocacy to protect the interests of their members.”
Nearly 100 participants from Latin America and the Caribbean learned how to apply credit union advocacy lessons in their respective countries.
Participants witnessed the importance of speaking with one voice by understanding and agreeing on their goals, roles and the process by which they will lobby policymakers. “If credit unions don’t speak for themselves, someone else will, and credit unions won’t like their message,” said Donovan, encouraging participants to take action. “It is clear that there are many passionate advocates for cooperative finance in Latin America and the Caribbean, and one of the added benefits of this workshop for me is being able to take their passion and their experience and apply it to what we are doing in the United States. These sessions are definitely a two-way street.”
The international delegation exchanged perspectives and challenges from their credit union movements in Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and St. Kitts.
“Sharing my experiences in lobbying with credit union officials from other countries was an enlightening and rewarding experience. It was so encouraging to see participants recognize the opportunity to apply our experiences and enact meaningful change in their own credit union systems,” Ross said.
World Council of Credit Unions is the global trade association and development agency for credit unions. World Council promotes the sustainable development of credit unions and other financial cooperatives around the world to empower people through access to high quality and affordable financial services. World Council advocates on behalf of the global credit union system before international organizations and works with national governments to improve legislation and regulation. Its technical assistance programs introduce new tools and technologies to strengthen credit unions’ financial performance and increase their outreach.
World Council has implemented more than 290 technical assistance programs in 71 countries. Worldwide, 57,000 credit unions in 103 countries serve 208 million people. Learn more about World Council’s impact around the world at www.woccu.org.
