gender in cooperatives. agenda 2 background and challenges proposed interventions
TRANSCRIPT
Gender in Cooperatives
Agenda
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Background and challenges
Proposed interventions
A Cooperative Sector strategy was launched
to promote and catalyze the cooperative
movement To contribute to Ethiopia’s GTP goals of increasing small holder income a Cooperative Sector
Strategy was launched to address increase small holder income by enabling cooperatives
provide effective and sustainable services to members and by sustaining enabling
environment and regulatory oversights to support cooperative movement
To contribute to Ethiopia’s overall vision of achieving middle income status by 2025 by
increasing smallholder farmers’ productivity and income through agricultural cooperatives.
Creating well-functioning agricultural cooperative sector that helps many smallholder
farmers increase their yields and incomes through; autonomous and efficient cooperatives at all tiers that provide effective and sustainable services to members
robust enabling environment of policy and regulatory oversight as well as capable and reliable service providers that
ensure s cooperatives have the necessary support to succeed.
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Vision
Mission
A number of challenges limit the participation of women in the current cooperative system
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Women face a number of challenges to participate in cooperative programs:
• Social limitations• Economic limitations• Heavy workload• Level of education • Selection criteria for
cooperative members• Existing gender biased
system (e.g., attitudes, practices, services,
policies)• Lack of support from
cooperative promoters
There is a very low level of women participation
in the current cooperative system:
• Limited opportunities for women’s participation in decision making areas
• Women have limited access to and control
over resources such as credit, education,
training, producing inputs and marketing
output
There is lack of disaggregated data on gender inclusion in cooperative program resulting very low awareness of the
bottleneck
Laye Women’s Primary Cooperative, Becho
Woliso
Farmers Coops Union
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Woldejalela Women primary coops
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Agenda
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Background and challenges
Proposed interventions
The principles of cooperative and
gender integration advantages
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• Cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united
voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural
needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and
democratically-controlled enterprise.
• Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, mutual responsibility, equality and
equity
• Active, equitable participation of members, both men and women,
is a necessity for sustainable cooperative development
• Smallholder households’ yields and incomes increase
disproportionately when women are beneficiaries of coop services• Women in leadership positions
are more likely to address gender issues and safeguard the
interests of women
Cooperative principles Gender integration principles
Gender mainstreaming strategies were proposed
after identifying gaps (1/2)
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Lack of gender equality awareness among cooperative
members, policy makers, cooperative promoters, and
cooperative managers
Raise gender equality awareness among the key stakeholders through focus
group discussion and awareness creation tools (e.g.
training manuals)
Identified Gaps Proposed strategies
Lack of commitment for gender equality among cooperative
members, policy makers, cooperative promoters, and
cooperative managers
Institutionalize gender equality in the coops sector – (assign gender focal persons, mentoring, coaching, design strategies, guidelines, etc)
Lack of gender sensitive indicators (sex and gender
disaggregated data)
Set gender disaggregated data as a criteria for performance indicator
Gender mainstreaming strategies were
proposed
after identifying gaps (2/2)
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Limited capacity of women cooperative members to
access productive resources; land, finance, skills &
knowledge
Create opportunities for women cooperative members
access to resources and benefits (Finance, extension services, agricultural inputs,
business skills, etc.)
Identified Gaps Proposed strategies
Cooperative services are not effective enough to address women members’ interest and attract more women
Ensure the equal benefit of women and men from
available services (infrastructure, time,
information, and service providers)
Lack of institutional support for promoting gender equality
in the Cooperative Sector
Address inequality in institutional systems,
policies, internal bylaws, etc.
The team proposes number of interventions
to address identified gaps
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Awareness creation, gender sensitization, education and lobbying cooperatives can help remove the obstacles to women's equal participation
Need based training and education programs to women cooperatives and strengthen women's self-confidence and enabling them to participate more fully in decision-making and assume leadership positions
collect gender disaggregated data and help identify different types of projects focused to women's needs which can help them increase their income-earning capacities and alleviate their work loads
Lobby for gender sensitive institutional systems, policies, internal bylaws, etc. to be in place (curriculum, gender focal person in FCA, gender mainstreaming strategies and guidelines)
Consider gender equality and equity as one part of the criteria for advanced certification of cooperatives
Strengthen coordinated efforts between stakeholders in gender integration
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