The impact of agricultural co-operatives on women’s empowerment: Evidence from Uganda

Abstract

This article contributes to understanding the potential of agricultural co-operatives to boost women’s empowerment and close gender gaps in sub-Saharan Africa. It provides quasi-experimental evidence of the impact of membership of an agricultural co-operative on women’s capabilities, their power and ability to influence decisions, and intra-household productive and reproductive labour divisions. It uses the P’KWI Farmer to Farmer Co-operative Society in north-eastern Uganda as a case study. It shows that being a member of P’KWI has a significantly positive impact on economic wellbeing, knowledge and adoption of agronomic practices, especially among women. Co-operative membership has a particularly strong positive impact on women’s decision making power at the household, group and community levels. Intra-household domestic and farm related labour divisions, however, did not change as a result of co-operative membership and remain disadvantageous for women. The article concludes that agricultural co-operatives can make a significant difference for women’s empowerment, provided that they actively and consistently address the bottlenecks to achieve gender equality.