Women Empowerment through Saving and Credit Cooperatives

An Empirical Study in Ejere Woreda, West Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State

Abstract

Although women constitute about half of the Ethiopian population their social status especially in rural areas remains very low. Women belong to the most deprived section of the society facing adverse conditions in terms of social oppression and economic inequality, a visible majority of them being poor. Considering this scenario, this paper analyzed services provided by saving and credit co-operatives in the study area, examined contribution of SACCOs for women empowerment in terms of economic, social and political dimensions, and assessed factors influence women empowerment in SACCOs. The methodology of this study is an integration of quantitative and qualitative methods based on data collected from three saving and credit cooperative societies in the study area. Data were collected from 128 respondents by employing random sampling technique from sampled three SACCOs and data also collected from FGD and KI interview. The findings clearly indicate that, women in the study area gained different economic, social and political empowerment after joining SACCOs. Saving and credit cooperatives play important role in improving women decision making power by contributing in economic activities. A Cumulative Women Empowerment Index (CWEI) was developed and three key indicators of empowerment status covering economic, social, and political dimensions of empowerment finding shows that, in aggregate terms there is an improvement and significant change of women status in all selected empowerment dimensions after joining saving and credit cooperatives. Moreover, the result of multiple regression analysis shows that, education, legal and rights awareness, asset ownership, credit accessibility, attendance in meeting, income, management participation, and voting right were highly influencing women empowerment in saving and credit cooperatives. The researcher recommend that SACCO should provide adequate knowledge on empowerment to members, promoting women in the management committee members, and providing regular training on saving and credit cooperatives benefits in order to access to information, balancing family resources, business responsibilities and at large empowering women.