ICA staff members met in Brussels, Belgium to formally ‘kick-off’ the EU project on Co-operatives in Development from June 21-24.  The meeting was led by Coops Europe and represented by Alliance staff from its offices in Belgium, Costa Rica, India, Kenya and the United States. Co-operatives were formally recognized as relevant Civil Society Organisations (CSO ) actors by the European Union (EU) in 2012 for their work on social inclusion and economic development among others. The European Commission (EC) partnered with the ICA in March this year to undertake as part of its commitment to support CSOs and to promote the potential of co-operative enterprises in development. This project will culminate in August 2020. The Kick off Meeting gave an opportunity to the staff involved in the implementation of  the  project to interact, get to know the implementation process and the international team better. The meeting gave an overview of the project aims, results and activities and financial planning for the duration of the project. The project will focus on developing capacities of co-operative federations, ICA as an institution and related policy and advocacy work. The work of the Alliance will be spearheaded by a Strategy Unit comprising of Regional Directors and the Director General, the Coordination Unit comprising of staff from  Cooperatives Europe and the Programme Unit comprising of regional staff. The overall supervision will be ensured by the Grant Oversight Committee comprising of the elected global board members of the Alliance.