International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) Seminar Series. April 12, 2013. Addis Ababa University

1. Women’s Participation in
Agricultural Cooperatives in
Ethiopia
By: 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

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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%

12. 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
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
bati gog ibantu ofla sekota sheko telalak yaso
At the time of establishment At the time of the survey

13. Women’s Participation in Cooperatives – Cont’d
Cooperatives 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.

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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** -0.036
Proportion 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 -0.016
No. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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].

25. 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

26. 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.

27. 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

28. Thank you!