AgriCooperatives as a Tool for Women's Empowerment, evidence from Western Zambia

Klára Kalinová

Diplomová práce

Abstract:

Agricultural cooperatives have gained increasing attention in strategies aiming at enhancing sustainable rural development and improving life conditions of smallholder farmers, for their ability to bring economic, social, and environmental benefits. Cooperatives have also been employed as potential tools for enhancing women’s empowerment and tackling gender inequality. Our study contributes to the evidence. This paper employs data collected within the final evaluation of a development project intervention implemented by a Czech NGO in the Western and Central Provinces of Zambia in 2021. Quantitative data were obtained from 319 female cooperative members through structured questionnaires. From the total number of respondents, 172 were members of cooperatives involved in the project intervention, and 147 members of control (non-project) cooperatives. To facilitate the interpretation of the results, we used qualitative data from focus group discussions with members of 9 project cooperatives. Employing the results of the Women’s Empowerment Index, we compared the degree of empowerment perceived by female members from 22 project-supported and 21 control group cooperatives. More positive results were found in cooperatives supported by the intervention, suggesting that external support and guidance of small-holder cooperatives contribute to perceptions of increased women’s empowerment. We also explored the determinants of the intensity of women’s participation in cooperatives. In this part of the research, we treated all 319 female cooperative members as one group. Using multiple linear regression, a positive relationship with active participation is discovered in two measures of women’s agency: women’s full control of their income, and their opportunity to freely participate in cooperative activities. The third factor found to be slightly significantly correlated with the participation intensity is the perception of the adequacy of extension support provided to the cooperatives. We conclude that cooperatives can become actors on the way to support women's empowerment and tackle gender inequality if they function as best as possible according to cooperative principles, surrounded by a supportive institutional environment, with simultaneous attention paid to the existence of discriminatory socio-cultural norms, and efforts made to address them.

Keywords

Women’s empowerment, Gender equality, Agriculture, Cooperatives, Western Zambia, Small-scale farming

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 2. 5. 2024

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Obhajoba proběhla 3. 6. 2024
• Vedoucí: Ing. Jana Mazancová, Ph.D.
• Oponent: Jakub Husák, Ph.D.

Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze

Fakulta tropického zemědělství

Magisterský studijní program:
International Development and Agricultural Economics