Centre for Cooperative and Livelihood (CCL) was established under Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie under the chairmanship of the Director, LBSNAA, with the objective to sensitize the Officers about potential and prospects of the cooperative sector, to facilitate research & studies in cooperative sector and to generate relevant training material. 

The Centre for Cooperatives and Livelihoods (CCL), earlier named Centre for Cooperatives and Rural Development (CCRD) has been started under the umbrella of Centre for Public Systems Management (CPSM) at LBSNAA, under the chairmanship of Director, LBSNAA, Mussoorie with some initial funding from Department of Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation, Government of India. However, recently the Center has been renamed as Centre for Cooperatives and Livelihood (CCL).

In the past, the Centre has collaborated with leading global institutions such as the Department of Agrarian Law The Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, the Netherlands for research  on cooperatives and rural development including organization, management linkages with government programs, legal aspects, role in poverty alleviation and such other areas relevant to the training of Indian government officers. The Centre has also taken up studies with academic and think tanks in the sector such as the National Dairy Development Board(NDDB), National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management(MANAGE), Chaudhary Charan Singh National Institute of Agricultural Marketing(NIAM), Institute of Rural Management Anand(IRMA), VAMNICOM(Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management), ISI Kolkata.