Active members of a cooperative are more likely to be assisted by their respective entities in case of any unforeseen challenges, a recent research study has shown.
According to a Cooperative Resilience Longitudinal Study in Kenya, which was conducted for the last 5 years, about 82 per cent of cooperative members expressed certainty that if they faced a crisis, their cooperative would swiftly come to their aid.
The research was conducted by Global Communities through the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Cooperative Development Program (CDP) known as Cooperative Leadership Engagement Advocacy and Research (CLEAR) project in partnership with the United States International University-Africa (USIU-A).
The findings generally showed that members received highest support to address effects of drought, followed by livestock diseases and then pests and diseases across the four years.
Conducted between 2019 and 2023, it involved 9 counties that were notably susceptible to adverse external shocks; Nyeri, Narok, Samburu, Isiolo, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Kwale, Baringo and West Pokot.
The selection of the counties was done through a collaborative process involving the research team and the State Department for Cooperatives.
The sample included a selection of agriculture cooperatives in different sub-sectors that include dairy, coffee, tomato, potato, marketing, fishing and rice, aiming to capture diverse experiences and responses to external shocks.
In addition to the powerful protective social capital and networking built through cooperative membership, the study found that members who are more active in their cooperatives are more likely to hold stronger positive expectations for their life, more hopeful for the future, much higher cohesion within their own families, higher self-efficacy and satisfaction in their lives, and much more self-esteem.
In terms of direct assistance, cooperative members who were less active in their membership were less likely to receive support from their cooperative following an interruption in their lives. From a social exchange theory perspective, this finding is not surprising.
“Members active in their cooperative are better able to withstand and recover faster when difficult outside events hurt their communities and families, such as floods, droughts, insect invasions, mudslides, human disease, animal disease, insecurity, cattle rustling, and political violence,” reads the research report in part.
Positive projection
As regards self-reflection and confidence, the findings showed that active members of the cooperatives are more positive about themselves and their potential, and they believe that they will succeed in life if they do not give up.
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They also believe that their future plans are possible to achieve and that they know how to reach their goals.
The results further showed that active members were more optimistic and believed in their stronger likelihood to thrive than inactive members. They also indicated that cooperatives are more useful to the community.
“The low optimism levels of this age group linked to a steep decline in their activity and participation in their cooperatives. Feeling overwhelmed with life seemed to lead them to neglect their cooperatives with the lowest cooperative participation of any age group,” adds the report.
The results also showed that more than 50 per cent of the respondents said that they are better off now than 5 years ago while 60 per cent expect to be even better off a year from now in relation to preparedness for future shocks.
Comparatively, optimism was higher among active members than inactive ones. Less than half of the respondents had set aside some emergency fund. However, the proportion was comparatively lower among inactive members, which was at 34 per cent, than active members, at 43.1 per cent.
Additionally, active members are more confident of getting a loan if they applied, with 31.1 per cent of them being very confident compared to only 17.5 per cent of the inactive members.
The findings also showed that Kenyans aged between 46 and 55 years and 18 to 25 are the most active in their cooperatives, while 36 to 45 year olds are the most likely to hold management positions.
Also, areas of the country that experienced pre-election related violence shocks saw a marked decline in cooperative membership activity, with regions that suffered more effects of the locust invasion and animal disease shocks having members actively turn to their cooperatives and become more engaged.
By Hezron Roy
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