IDS or the Institutional Development Services Program by the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) is devised to help all types of cooperative institutions in assessing their organizational challenges and needs. According to NATCCO, it is an organizational diagnostics methodology, conceptualized particularly for all the stakeholders of the cooperatives from top-level leaders down to members, would be able to participate in tackling matters and offering solutions to the table.

This training manual aims to equip interested facilitators on how to do IDS and how to it can be done through interviews and surveys. Through this material, the participants would be able to appreciate how IDS acts a reliable tool for gathering data and monitoring how policies and procedures work or does not work in the cooperatives. It would also help them locate their own issues, as well as track the right strategy to improve their institutional methods, policies, and operations. Moreover, it also assists the coop leaders in knowing the training needs of its members to make sure that each individual can think or work critically and can contribute better outputs.