Gender in Cooperatives

1. Gender in Cooperatives

2. Agenda • Background and challenges • Proposed interventions 2

3. 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. • Creatingwell-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. Vision Mission

4. A number of challenges limit the participation of women in the current cooperative system • 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 • 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 lack of disaggregated data on gender inclusion in cooperative program resulting very low awareness of the bottleneck

5. Laye Women’s Primary Cooperative, BechoWolisoFarmers Coops Union

6. Woldejalela Women primary coops

7. Agenda • Background and challenges • Proposed interventions 7

8. The principles of cooperative and gender integration advantages Cooperative principles Gender integration principles • 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

9. Gender mainstreaming strategies were proposed after identifying gaps (1/2) Identified Gaps Proposed strategies 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) 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

10. Gender mainstreaming strategies were proposed after identifying gaps (2/2) Identified Gaps Proposed strategies 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.) 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.

11. The team proposes number of interventions to address identified gaps 1 Awareness creation, gender sensitization, education and lobbying cooperatives can help remove the obstacles to women's equal participation 2 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 3 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 4 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) 5 • Consider gender equality and equity as one part of the criteria for advanced certification of cooperatives 6 Strengthen coordinated efforts between stakeholders in gender integration