What women’s co-operatives want

According to the survey, when asked what does your co-operative needs to improve its business, there are some differences based on status of the women’s co-operative. The top three answers for active co-operatives are: (1) product/business development; (2) financial/organizational support; and (3) technical support and advice. The top three responses from inactive co-operatives were: (1) training; (2) financial/organizational support; and (3) technical support/advice (Figure 52).

Region did not impact what kind of support women’s co-operatives requested: no difference emerged based on the location of the women’s co-operatives. One factor that did affect how women answer was based on the type of women’s co-operative.

Enterprise co-operatives requested specifically: (1) product/business development;

(2) financial/organizational support; and (3) training. Agricultural development co-operatives, on the other hand, requested (1) financial/organizational support; (2) technical support/advice; and (3) equipment (Figure 53).

Figure 53 WHAT WOMEN’S CO-OPERATIVES NEED TO IMPROVE BUSINESS BASED ON TYPE (ACTIVE AND INACTIVE) (N=101)

Space Training

Technical Suppor

t/ Advice Product/ Business Development Financial/ organizational support Equipment Staff Networking/ Partnering Other

Agricultural

Development (n=28) 36% 54% 68% 54% 71% 61% 21% 39%

Finance, cheaper input, field to cultivate, support from ministry

Enterprise (n=64) 55% 59% 56% 70% 63% 47% 27% 52%

-Consumers Co-op (n=2) 100% 100% 50% 50% 100% 100% 50% 50%

-Manufacturing and

marketing (n=2) 0% 50% 50% 50% 0% 0% 0% 50%

-Small Arts (n=4) 25% 0% 25% 0% 25% 25% 0% 0% Finance

Other:

Publishing n=1) 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Friendship, communication without hierarchy

According to the interviews with women’s co-operatives, there is little difference between what supports are needed for active and inactive women’s co-operatives.

The top types of support programs active and inactive women’s co-operatives requested are: (1) supports that take into consideration their co-operative nature;

(2) more local support; (3) more vertical and horizontal networking and sharing; (4) capacity to pursue support; and (5) more than entrepreneurship. A small difference is that inactive women’s co-operatives are often in need of more foundational supports such as space, operations management and financial support, which is not surprising as these co-operatives would be expected to require basic elements to restart their co-operative business.

In the interviews with women’s co-operatives, of those who mentioned training as a support they received, half stated that they find the women’s co-operative specific training (on establishment and management of women’s co-operatives)

useful because of its relevance in terms of content and learning style.These kinds of trainings are designed for women and were on topic for the development of skills to run a women’s co-operative. These women’s co-operative specific trainings address the need for the associative skills for successful co-operatives, as stated by the founder of one active women’s co-operative:

“We went to KEDV for co-op management and capacity building trainings for women.”

The 45 stakeholder interviews also provided insights into the limitations of support programs for women’s co-operatives. The top four limitations identified by stakeholders in the interviews were: (1) policies; (2) funding; (3) awareness; and (4) training.

The number one limitation identified by stakeholders was policies governing women’s co-operatives. While these include tax laws, fees, policies and regulations, as discussed in the legal review in Chapter 4, they also highlight the issue of accessibility to programs due to organizational structure.

Women’s co-ops are important tools for developing the joint action culture and entrepreneurship among low income women. Because of this, decisions need to be taken and action needs to be taken quickly for the co-ops to overcome these problems. One of the most important problems that the co-ops face is that they are in the same category as commercial enterprises which make them face important financial problems. So policies to strengthen women’s co-ops that have important role in empowering women should be developed quickly.

The second highest support limitation identified by stakeholders was around funding. Stakeholders spoke about funding issues in many different ways. For example, comments from stakeholders in the interviews spoke about loan programs, loan programs tied to business counselling programs or to technical support, and grant programs.

Women’s co-operatives should be given funding, training and technical support.

The third most common limitation in support programs discussed by stakeholders was awareness about women’s co-operatives. In Chapter 3, external and internal challenges were discussed of which lack of awareness of women’s co-operatives for authorities was identified. This could be about the existence of women’s operatives, women’s operatives in their community, impact of women’s co-operatives or supports needs for women’s co-co-operatives. As one of the directors of women’s co-operatives states:

“Many institutions don’t know about women’s co-operatives. The co-ops should be supported to raise awareness about their needs. If institutions become aware of the co-ops, they would take concrete steps to support them.”

On par with awareness about women’s co-operatives was training. As noted earlier, training is the main type of support provided to women’s co-operatives. However, none of the stakeholders in the interviews discussed the associative nature of co-operatives and the unique skillset and knowledge base that is needed to successfully manage a co-operative. Only one stakeholder acknowledged the need for different delivery of trainings to members, staff or managers of women’s co-operatives.

“We organize informing meeting on the grant programs to support the applicants….

And we provide project writing trainings. I think co-ops can be supported by assigning experts to work with co-ops one on one on their project (i.e. developing the idea and writing the proposal).”

Other support program limitations presented were programs availability and accessibility, business support, providing space and equipment, lack of procurement programs directed at women’s co-operatives, and supporting other organizations that support women’s co-operatives.

“The institutions and organizations can help women’s co-ops in overcoming challenges, if they could provide concrete supports instead of verbal appreciation. For example, by allocating space, land, equipment with protocol; providing business development support; purchasing services and goods; providing logistics (i.e. utilities, transportation etc.); and supporting visibility and relations with the private sector.” (Municipal representative)

There were a number of stakeholders that discussed the role of publicis it pertains to supporting women’s co-operatives. There was no consensus about which Ministry should take the lead on supporting and regulating women’s co-operatives.

There was consistency in responses from publicstakeholders that the women’s co-operatives should have a more predominant place in the strategic plans of government institutions and recognition that different type of government support programs needed to have the flexibility to be accessible to women’s co-operatives.

Thirty-nine (39) of the micronarrative stories noted that there was inadequate support from different institutions and structures. Women identify the potential clearly in the co-operative they have founded, but lament the lack of sustained engagement, understanding, and follow-up from different institutions that could support their co-operative. Two members of active women’s co-operatives described this situationas follows:

“It has been two years until we establish our co-operative and I remember many institutions and people giving us promises on how they are going to support us. There were some members from political parties and some were from local authorities. We were very excited and motivated. However we observed that they were only false promises and gave us empty hopes. If those promises were kept our co-operative may be in a much better position and we needed less support and help now. I wish they would support us now.”

“We tried to reach every institute that can support us and explained our mission because our aim was very good for public and we were the first woman co-operative in our region. We were aiming to support women for them to contribute to their families. Today we still carry our best wills about co-operative however nonetheless our entire effort we couldn’t get any support from local administrations. We never understood why they were so hands-off attitude to us. We weren’t asking any money we were just asking their support and for example for to use one of their empty rooms as kitchen by paying our rent however they stand clear of this also. We continue our existence with the support of the Chamber of Commerce now. Even all these difficulties I am feeling so proud that we are doing good things to see even 10 of 300 women on their feet and the feeling that my effort is empowering them takes away all my disappointment and tiredness.”