The Cooperative Facility for Africa (CoopAfrica) is a regional technical cooperation programme of the ILO contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the promotion of decent work in Africa by promoting self-help initiatives, mutual assistance in communities and cross border exchanges through the cooperative approach. CoopAfrica contributes to improving the governance, efficiency and performance of primary cooperatives, other social economy organizations and their higher level structures in order to strengthen their capacity to access markets, create jobs, generate income, reduce poverty, provide social protection and give their members a voice and representation in society. CoopAfrica ’s approach consists of assisting stakeholders to establish a legal and policy environment conducive to the development of cooperatives; providing support services through identified ‘Centres of competence’; promoting effective co-coordinating structures (e.g., unions and federations) and establishing and maintaining challenge fund mechanisms, for ‘services’, ‘innovation’, and ‘training’. These funds are accessible through a competitive demand-driven mechanism and a transparent selection of the best proposals. CoopAfrica and its network of ‘Centres of competence’ provide different types of services: policy and legal advice; studies and publications; training and education; support to field projects; development or adaptation of didactical and methodological material; networking; advocacy; and promotion of innovative cooperative ventures among others. CoopAfrica is located in the ILO Office for Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, and is part of the Cooperative Programme (EMP/COOP) of the Job Creation and Enterprise Development Department of the ILO. The programme works in partnership with the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the UK Cooperative College, the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and the African Union Secretariat. CoopAfrica is a multi-donors programme primarily supported by the UK Department for International Development (DfID). It also receives support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Government of Finland, the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND) and the German Cooperative and Raiffeisen Confederation (DGRV).