Women's Empowerment through AgriCooperatives in Zambia

Anna Beránková

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

All the African countries except Namibia, Rwanda and South Africa are struggling with policy implementation towards the achievement of Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the UN. The last UN report (2019) shows slow progression and major or significant challenges with regards to gender equality, the deficiency of which is also visible because of the deeply rooted historical and cultural context. This survey investigated the current situation of agricultural cooperatives in the Western and Central Province in Zambia with a focus on membership benefits, view of female participation, entry conditions into the cooperative, and the perception of women’s empowerment. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 272 cooperative members. 147 respondents were from cooperatives supported by Caritas Czech Republic through various trainings. This fact was further confirmed by the results where there was a significant difference between the supported members and non-supported members in terms of membership benefits. In addition to the questionnaire survey, several focus group discussions were conducted, and the responses are quoted in the thesis based on the specific objective.It was discovered that cooperatives bring social and economic benefits to their members. Most of the respondents also did not face any difficulties in meeting the entry conditions into the cooperative, however, one fifth of female members and one fifth of male members were confronted with financial entry conditions. It was not proved nor rejected that women are not discriminated by the entry conditions into a cooperative based on gender. Nevertheless, both target groups based on gender strongly agree with the presence of women in leadership positions and find it beneficial. The last part is related to the empowerment perception where female and male respondents were marked in the same interval of medium and high level of empowerment perception. As such, it can be considered that cooperative membership has an impact on empowerment perception of both genders.

Keywords

agricultural cooperatives, benefits of membership, women’s leadership, women’s empowerment, gender equity, Zambia, SDGs, gender equality

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 15. 5. 2020

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Jana Mazancová, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Bachelor programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / International Cooperation in Agriculture and Rural Development