Abstract:
One of the pillars of good governance in co-operatives is member participation in
all stages of decision making (Prakash: 1999). But member participation does not
just happen naturally or automatically. It has to be induced through different
efforts by the leaders, the employed staff as well as the members themselves. One
of the critical factors, for causing member participation, is member
empowerment. In this presentation, we are going to look at member
empowerment in Savings and Credit Co-operatives (SACCOS) in Tanzania. The
Savings and Credit Co-operative Movement is the second biggest and also the
fastest growing co-operative system in Tanzania. With 890 societies, it boasts
175,000 membership (SCCULT:2003), while the agricultural marketing
cooperative movement, is formed by over 4,000 co-operatives with 600,000
members. In economic terms, the relationship between savings and credit
cooperatives and entrepreneurship development in marketing co-operatives are
obvious. The two have a technical logic of existence. But in Tanzania the
interaction between financial and crop marketing co-operatives is marginal.
Historically, the two do not exist in the same geographical space. The Savings
and credit movement is largely employee-based hence urban centric, while the
agricultural marketing movement is typically rural. This is a challenge which
cooperative promoters and supporters will have to face.
