Women’s Participation in Agricultural Cooperatives in

EthiopiaBy: Thomas Woldu Assefa (Msc.)

Research Officer @ IFPRI/EDRI-ESSP-II Fanaye Tadesse Techane (Msc.)

Research Officer @ IFPRI/EDRI-ESSP-II Marie-Katherine Waller (PhD)

Independent Gender and Research Consultant

Introduction

• Ethiopia’s economy is characterized by smallholder subsistence farming

• These small-holder farmers lack modern inputs and market access.

• Agricultural cooperatives are believed to play a crucial role in curbing these problems by – making credit and modern inputs available – creating market opportunities and sell members’ output.

• Global and national evidence clearly shows rural women play critical roles in bringing about food and economic security

Introduction cont.

• Greater attention on; agricultural policies and programs – Gender sensitive, and – Address barriers to women’s equal participation and benefit

• This recognition, however, has not yet translated into policies and programs in the cooperative sub-sector.

• Women still face major obstacles in joining and being active members of typically male-dominated cooperatives.

• Women’s equal participation: both women’s right and important for sustainable and people-centered development.

• Co-operatives bring together the economically weak members of the society and thereby enhance their individual capacities

• Women’s participation is important:

– For sustainable cooperative development – As an effective means to empower women in rural areas – In helping them to overcome the constraints they face in

accessing education, knowledge and information, as well as productive assets (FAO 2010)

Introduction – cont’d

• It improves their • self-confidence, knowledge, leadership skills and incomes,

access to agricultural inputs and expand their social networks and position in value-chains.

• Women's economical and social empowerment, affects – their household and community decision-making power– their access and control over productive assets – these changes lead to; improved household nutrition, food

and income security, broader development outcomes; and, a more integrated production of both food and cash crops

Introduction cont.• In most developing countries

– The participation of women in cooperatives is very minimal (Idrisa et al 2007).

• In Ethiopia, – Women’s participation in agricultural cooperatives was only 8

percent in 2004 (USAID 2005) and – 16 percent in the total urban and rural cooperatives in 2007

(Bernard et al. 2010).– We found it being 20 percent in our data, which is generally very

low• Those few member women also face problems and constraints,

which adversely affect the benefits of membership.

Introduction cont.

• In most countries, there are formal and informal prejudices about what women can and cannot do.

• Factors preventing women from full participation in cooperatives– formal and informal prejudices about what women can and cannot

do.– Laws, and even co-operative rules and by-laws, sometimes hinder

women's membership in cooperative societies (ICA 1983). – Religious rules and traditions – Rural women in developing countries often work long hours – Women in developing countries often lack the basic education

• It is not well understood which factors contribute to women participating in cooperatives.

Objective

• This paper aims at filling a critical knowledge gap by identifying through different methods the characteristics of cooperatives, households, and individual women that are associated with women’s participation in cooperatives in Ethiopia.

• It quantifies which factors contribute to the low participation of women in cooperatives and which type of cooperatives are more successful in attracting women as members.

Data and methodology • Data were jointly collected by Ethiopian Economics Association

(EEA) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2009.

• The surveys were conducted in eight selected Woredas in 7 regions: Afar, Amhara, Beneshangul-Gumuz, Gambella, Oromia, SNNP, Tigray – Household survey:

– in 4 randomly drawn kebeles of each of the 8 weredas– 35 randomly drawn households in each selected kebele– total of approx. 1120 households

– Kebele-level surveys:– in all kebeles of each selected weredas– total of approx. 156 kebeles

Household Members- Both HH head and spouse

separately

Local Political Representatives- Kebele chair- Kebele council member (1 male, 1

female)- Kebele council speaker- Wereda council member

Service Providers- Development agents (1 livestock,

1 crop)- Agricultural cooperatives- Water committee head

Household survey Kebele level survey

Kebele level survey

Survey Design

Distribution of Cooperatives in the Sample

Region Woreda

Number of Agricultural

Cooperatives

Number of Kebeles in

Woreda Cooperative- Kebele Ratio

Afar Telalak 2 12 0.17

Amhara Bati 14 23 0.61

Amhara Sekota 19 33 0.53

Benishangul-Gumuz Yaso 5 14 0.36

Gambella Gambella 3 11 0.27

Oromia Ibantu 10 20 0.50

SNNP Sheko 6 25 0.24

Tigray Ofla 14 18 0.78

Total 73 156

Cooperative Characteristics• The average number of members

– At time of establishment – 245– At the time of the survey – 600

• Women tend to collectively organize around crops and livestock under their direct control

• Maize and Wheat are traditionally under men’s control in Ethiopia

Activities Percentage of Cooperatives

Have members outside of the Kebele 32%Sell shares to members 67%Obtain inputs for members 55%Sell products of members 23% (Mainly Maize and Wheat)Provide credit services 77%

-Lending directly 49%-Playing Intermediary role 24%

-Both lending directly and playing intermediary role 4%

Women’s Participation in Cooperatives

• Women constitute about 20 percent of members on average • Five percent of the cooperatives do not have women members at all • The percentage of women is not increasing over time (only 3 percent

increase on average)

Percentage of Women Members in Cooperatives

bati gog ibantu ofla sekota sheko telalak yaso0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

At the time of establishment At the time of the survey

Women’s Participation in Cooperatives – Cont’dCooperatives that have women in leadership position 18%Participation of members in cooperative meetings (considering the last meeting before the survey)

- Men who attended the meeting (as a percentage of total men members) 47% - Women who attended the meeting (as a percentage of total women members) 45%

Leaders think it is better for the community if cooperatives have more women members 96%Leaders discussed about increasing women's participation during meetings they held in the past one year 16%Leaders received some sort of training 55% - Leaders’ trainings had component that addressed women's issues 28%

• This result suggests that once women are members of cooperative, they are likely equally interested in participating in meetings.

• The question is whether they are able to equally voice and have their interests heard as male members.

Econometric Analysis

• At cooperative level – Tobit model; in modeling determinants of women’s

proportion in cooperatives

• At individual/household level – Logit model; to study the determinants of membership

Cooperative level Analysis

Modelling Determinants of Women’s Proportion in Cooperatives

• A tobit model, truncated from below at zero, was estimated

• Explanatory variables include indicators for • the way the cooperatives are organized and function, • the characteristics of the cooperatives at the time of

their establishment, • the characteristics of the leaders, • link of the cooperative with the government, and • the type of services the cooperatives provide

With out upper limit

With Upper limit (0.50)

Explanatory variables dy/dx Std. Err. dy/dx

Std. Err.

Cooperatives are formally registered (Yes=1) 0.011 -0.046 0.009 -0.039

Number of visits to government officials 0 -0.001 0 -0.001

Entrance fee of members (in Birr) -0.008 -0.005 -0.007 -0.005

Members can buy shares (Yes=1) 0.696** -0.282 0.419*** -0.107

All members are in one kebele (Yes=1) 0.085** -0.034 0.072** -0.036Proportion of leaders who can read and write 0.131*** -0.024 0.106*** -0.028

Leaders have taken some sort of training (Yes=1) 0.075*** -0.015 0.065*** -0.017

No. of years a cooperative head serves in a position -0.002 -0.017 -0.004 -0.016No. of total members at the time the cooperative is established 0.000*** 0 0.000*** 0

Established after 2000 G.C (Yes=1) -0.044 -0.06 -0.036 -0.054

Provide input to members (Yes=1) 0.085*** -0.032 0.066** -0.032

Sell output for members (Yes=1) -0.032 -0.058 -0.029 -0.052

Provide credit service to members (Yes=1) -0.118 -0.097 -0.085 -0.079

Number of observations=57

Modeling Women's Proportion in Cooperatives (Tobit regression)

Notes: clustered standard errors in parenthesis. Coefficients are significant at *10 percent, ** 5 percent and *** 1 percent. District fixed effects were used in the regression.

Determinants of Women’s Proportion in Cooperatives – cont’d

• Cooperatives’ links with government officials do not have a significant effect on women’s proportion. – This might be due to less emphasis given to women’s

participation when the cooperatives visit government officials

– Other studies; women generally have not been accessed by agricultural extension workers nor equally benefited from quality services that meet their needs and interests

• Cooperatives do not face any problem to get formally registered even if they fail to have considerable numbers of women members. – Perhaps the new certification program will help change this gender

gap.

Determinants of Women’s Proportion in Cooperatives – cont’d

• The ways the cooperatives are organized and function significantly affect women’s proportion in cooperatives.– Women’s proportion is more likely to be higher in

cooperatives • with members only in one Kebele • which distribute input to members• that have a higher proportion of literate leaders• that received leader’s training

Individual Level Analysis

Modelling Determinants of Cooperative Membership

– Included explanatory variables • Demographic variables, • household variables and • variables which serve as a proxy for social interaction of

individuals– A logit model is estimated

Explanatory Variables Model one Model two

dy/dx Std. Err. dy/dx Std. Err. Gender (Male=1)

-.088 ** (.039) -.007

(.019)

Age of the individual (in years) .002 ** (.001) .001

(.001)

Literacy (literate=1) .066

(.046) .054

(.042)

Household size .008 ** (.003) .010 *** (.004)

Place of birth (in the Kebele=1) .009 (.041) .022 (.035) No. of visits by an expert in the past 1 year .007 (.005) .006 (.005) Position (held official, village or traditional position=1) .071 ** (.032) .051 * (.027) Relatives ever held positions (Yes=1) .091 *** (.021) .079 *** (.023) Land holding of the household (in hectars) .002 (.003) .002

(.003)

Household head (Yes=1) --- .122 *** (.043) Number of observations 1877 1877

Pseudo R2 0.15 0.17

Modeling Determinants of Membership (Logit models)

Notes: Marginal effects are reported. Clustered standard errors in parenthesis. Estimates are significant at *10 percent, ** 5 percent and *** 1 percent. Model one does not include household head variable but model two includes the variable.

Modelling Determinants of Cooperative Membership - Cont’d

• Their power of decision making in the household matters a lot– From the wider literature; female household heads tend to

be more educated, have more freedom to move around and thus have greater access to information and ability and opportunities to join formal groups.

• Individuals who are more likely to be members • are older• are living in a bigger family• have held village, official or traditional positions and • have relatives who have held such positions

Characteristics of Women Members as Compared to Non-members – Cont’d

• We couldn’t do regression due to few women members (6%) • Hence, simple mean difference tests are conducted between

members and non-members • The results show that

– Women who are members of cooperatives • come from households with educated head and higher

average level of education within the household. • have higher family sizes in general and more women

household members [this has its own implication on daughters time allocation]

• are more likely heads of their households.• are relatively older• have held relatively more some sort of official, village or

traditional position

Conclusion

• Women’s participation in cooperatives is limited both as members and as leaders. – Therefore, there should be more efforts in improving women’s

participation • Such efforts in its current form do not seem to be persuasive

– As it was evidenced by the effect of the link between cooperatives and government officials on women’s participation; none.

• But, the new cooperative certification program to have good gender practice standards as a criteria of certification is a good entry point

Conclusion

• Cooperatives’ characteristics – The ways cooperatives are organized and function is also

found to significantly affect women’s proportion in cooperatives

– Leaders’ characteristics are also found to be the main factor that determines women’s participation in cooperatives

• leaders of cooperatives should be educated/educated members should become leaders

• leaders should be trained, especially on the issue of improving women’s participation. This should be done for potential female leaders also [could be the few women members].

Conclusion • Individual/household characteristics

– Women are found significantly less probable to be member of cooperatives

• One of the main reasons is seemingly related with their power of decision making in the household

• most of the women that are members of cooperatives are heads of their households

– Empowering women in their household improves women’s participation in cooperatives

– Women who come from households with educated heads and who have higher average levels of education are also more likely to be a member.

• Education plays a significant role in improving women’s participation in cooperatives

Conclusion

• Good practice; – Gender training on the benefit of increased female participation and

leadership to • both cooperative office administrators at regional, woreda and

Kebele levels and • to male-dominated cooperatives

– First starting with women’s smaller self-help groups to build their capacity, their financial literacy and assets to then support them to join more formal cooperatives

– Supporting women to first join together into female cooperatives while also supporting mixed-sex ones to ensure integration and linkages of both.

Conclusion

• The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has recognized gender as a national development priority. – Its Agricultural Cooperatives Sector Development Strategy (2012-

2016), sets targets to achieve 30 percent representation of women in cooperatives by 2016.

• It may set a quota of at least one woman elected board member at both primary and union levels

Thank you!