CO-OPERATIVES BY STATUS (N=101)

Durum Kadın kooperatiflerinin sayısı

Başlangıç 2

Faaliyet halinde 47

Büyüyor 14

Aktif 63

İnaktif 10

Fesih sürecinde 8

Kapandı 20

İnaktif 38

Toplam 101

Sixty three of the co-operatives surveyed identified as being active – either start up, operational or expanding. While 63 active women’s co-operatives is not a large number, it does point to interest and opportunity. There are 38 inactive co-operatives – those that are either inactive, terminated or closed – which suggests a need to address the reasons why so many women’s co-operatives meet challenges they could not overcome.²⁴

Figure 6 presents a breakdown of women’s co-operatives according to region and status. This figure provides a general picture of women’s co-operatives in Turkey.

24 For more information see http://ica.co-op/en/media/news/co-op-statistics-multi-stakeholder-working-group-launched-turkey (obtained May 4, 2015)

Figure 6 BREAKDOWN OF WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVES BY REGION AND STATUS (N=101)

REGIONS

ACTIVE WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVES INACTIVE WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVES of co-ops Type of

co-operative Field of activity of co-ops Type of co-ops

Akdeniz 2 1 enterprise 1 agriculture

Income generation and other types

of activities 6 4 enterprise

2 agriculture

Doğu

Anadolu 2 1 enterprise

1 agriculture

1 income generation and social aimed activities

9 income generation and other types of activities (mainly trainings for women, socio-cultural and

11 income generation and social aimed activities (mainly trainings for women, socio-cultural activities, guidance to services and advocacy) 2 income generation

1 Enterprise

İç Anadolu 10 5 enterprise 5 agriculture

4 income generation and other social aimed activities (mainly

4 income generation and other social aimed activities (mainly

14 income generation and social aimed activities

Comparing the inactivity of women’s co-operatives with the broader number of inactive operatives in Turkey is not straightforward. Clear data on the number of inactive co-operatives in Turkey was not obtained. The number of inactive co-co-operatives in Turkey is referred in the Turkish Co-operative Action Plan in a general sense, noting that co-operatives that close tend to close because they were not successful businesses; or because they were temporary in nature (i.e. housing co-operatives). More broadly, the trend in Turkey has been a reduction in the number of co-operatives, from a little more than 84,232 cited in the Action Plan to 73,581 in the latest statistics from the MoCT (2014). Co-operative numbers in other countries also fluctuate, as co-operatives merge or dissolve. As noted in Section 2.4, a new co-operative statistics committee has been struck in Turkey. The work of this committee may result in most standard and uniform data collection active and inactive co-operatives, within which women’s co-operatives would be included, making comparisons more straightforward and meaningful.

According to Figure 7, the most number of active co-operatives have been around for ten years, followed by one, three and four years. In terms of inactive co-operatives, years two, three, four and five are years when women’s co-operatives canbecome inactive. The shift from active to inactive status is revisited in Section 3.1.3.

Figure 7 LENGTH OF TIME OPEN FOR ACTIVE AND INACTIVE WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVES (N=87) ²⁵

Note: 14 inactive co-operatives didn’t provide their closing date.

25 İnaktif kooperatiflerin tümü bir kapanış tarihi bildirmemiştir.

Figure 8 SIZE OF WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVES IN 2014 (N= 96)

With respect to the size of women’s operatives, almost half of active women’s co-operatives have between 7-24 members (Figure 8).

The type of co-operative has been taken from the legal categorization. In terms of the types of women’s co-operatives, 63 per cent of the women’s co-operatives identified as enterprise operatives and 28 per cent identified as agriculture co-operatives.²⁶ The following figure (Figure 9)presents only active co-operatives. Five co-operatives did not answer both questions in the survey so they are not included in this figure.

Figure 9 ACTIVE WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVES BASED ON TYPE AND MEMBERSHIP SIZE (N=58)

TYPE 7-14 15-24 25-34 35-49 50-74 75+ Total

(Type)

Enterprise 14 11 6 5 1 2 39

Manufacturing/

Marketing

0 1 0 0 0 0 1

Consumers 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

Small Arts 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

26 Enterprise co-operatives are presented in further detail in Appendix 5.

Figure 9shows there is a range in sizes for enterprise and agricultural development women’s co-ops. The majority of agricultural women’s co-operatives were fairly large, with five out of 16 having over 75 members. Enterprise women’s co-operatives are generally smaller in size, with 25 of the 39 active enterprise women’s co-operatives having between 7-24 members. That being said, enterprise women’s co-operatives were found in all membership size categories, thus indicating that a preferred membership size does not seem to exist. When the survey was run to see if any trends emerged regarding women’s co-operatives’ size, it was found that membership size does not really affect how a women’s co-operative is going to be run or which challenges it will face.

Given that the two most prevalent types of women’s co-operatives are enterprise co-operatives and agricultural co-operatives, more lengthy descriptions of each have been included in Appendix 5 and 3. While these two types of co-operatives are noticeably un-networked with each other; and have different origins – all of the agricultural co-operatives are started by the support of MoFAL and enterprise co-operatives are almost exclusively self-started – these women’s co-operatives nevertheless meet similar needs of their members. This is further explored in the following sections of this chapter. Furthermore, a more detailed description of when and how co-operatives provide childcare services is presented in Appendix 4.

3.2 Why are women’s co-operatives created?

An important element defining the multipurpose women’s co-operative is that the majority are created by women, for women. According to the survey, 42 of the active women’s co-operatives were started by women in the community out of 63, as well 23 out of 38 of the inactive women’s co-operatives were started by women in the community. The remaining women’s co-operatives either began as a result of a project, or were first created by NGOs or public institutions.

The research data from the survey demonstrates that the top three reasons for starting a women’s co-operative directly relate to solving problems for women (Figure 10). Women’s co-operatives were asked to provide the top five reasons for starting their co-operative and to rank these reasons from most important to least important, with “1” being most important. The figurebelowshows the number of active and inactive women’s co-operatives who chose each category in their top three and their given rank. These include providing jobs for women, empowering women socially and providing solutions for common women’s issues. Providing jobs for women was ranked in the top three reasons for start-up for 81 per cent of active co-operatives and 68 per cent of inactive co-operatives. Empowering women was found in the top three for 79 per cent of active co-operatives and 68 per cent of inactive co-operatives.

Lastly, creating solutions for common women’s issues made it into the top three of 56 per cent of active co-operatives and 48 per cent of inactive co-operatives.

Figure 10 REASONS FOR STARTING