Abstract
Cooperative is a useful instrument to alleviate the socio-economic problems of the societies in many countries in general and in developing countries in particular, including Ethiopia. Cooperation among people has existed since time immemorial. However, formal cooperatives began in Ethiopia since 1960. The objective of this study was to show the socio-economic development contributions of cooperatives and the challenges encountering the sector. Intensive conceptual and empirical literature reviews were made in the areas of cooperative development, cooperative policy and regulatory framework documents, and cooperatives periodic activity reports from the Cooperatives Commission of Ethiopia. The study indicated that the number of primary cooperatives has increased from 149 to 99,542 from 1960 to 2021 showing 66,000% rate of growth. The number of members increased from approximately below one thousand to about 21 million during the same period demonstrating very high growth rate. Likewise, their capital was increased from about a million to 28.8 billion Ethiopian Birr during the stated periods. The finding identified challenges of cooperatives such as low participation and lack of awareness, low involvement of the stakeholders, lack of professionalism, weak linkage, inadequate support and lack of good governance. It necessitates provision of cooperatives education and training to promote members’ participation, involving stakeholders, attracting professionals, creating strong linkages, solving capital related problems, promoting cooperatives’ good governance and providing enabling legislation and regulation for the development of the cooperatives. Keywords: Challenges; Modern Cooperatives; Primary Cooperatives; Stakeholders’ Participation, Socio-Economic Contributions. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-1-04 Publication date: January 31 st 2022
Highlights
In the contemporary period, poverty is abolishing the lives of billions of the people around the world
The methodological approach adopted in this review is “best evidence review” whose focus is targeted towards combining various systematic methods of study-selection and result exploration.The data were collected from various secondary sources such as, policy and regulatory framework documents, past study reports and cooperatives periodic activity reports, Federal Cooperative Proclamation No 147/1998 and Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Proclamation No 402/2004
In terms of capital, Addis Ababa is the largest covering 57.3% of the total capital of the country’s primary cooperatives. This is followed by Oromia region, which covers 36.1% of the national primary cooperatives ‘capital. Except Addis Ababa, all the regions together cover less than 50% of the national capital of primary cooperatives
Summary
Poverty is abolishing the lives of billions of the people around the world. Many people sense in capable to change their lives In this hardship situation, cooperative businesses emanated to be a strong, active, and feasible economic opportunity to alleviate poverty.The concept of human cooperation is not new; it existed even before the formation of modern cooperation. Cooperative businesses emanated to be a strong, active, and feasible economic opportunity to alleviate poverty.The concept of human cooperation is not new; it existed even before the formation of modern cooperation To overcome their immediate problems and to share their feelings, human beings traditionally work together in day to day life. As it is stated by Gary (1993), cooperative is an association of persons who have voluntarily joined together to achieve a common goal. This implies they are created on the leading idea that by working together, a group of people can achieve an objective that would be unattainable if acting alone (Ruhul & Mahin, 2014; Desalegn, 2019)
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