The Role of Members’ Participation in Cooperative Success in Ethiopia

Abstract

Member-owned business organizations, such as cooperatives (or co-ops), are engaged in various economic activities that touch our everyday lives. In developing countries like Ethiopia, there are various advantages for small farmers in joining a cooperative, including lowering costs of marketing, purchasing inputs, bargaining, etc. Cooperatives contribute to the overall economic growth of Ethiopia. But, cooperative members’ participation in the activities of cooperatives is often challenging, especially in large cooperatives with diversified business activities and with large and heterogeneous membership. The review aims to explore the role of members’ participation in cooperative success in Ethiopia. The study is based on review of pertinent literature on members’ participation in Ethiopia as well as secondary data obtained from various sources. The review identified the contributions of members’ participation in cooperative success development, which contribute to the improvement of cooperative performance and the challenges facing the participation of members’. Finally; the study suggested promoting members’ participation among the cooperatives which can increase cooperative development to improve cooperative development in developing countries in general and Ethiopia in particular.

Keywords: Members’ participation, Participation, Cooperative development, Cooperative performance

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-15-03

Publication date:August 31^st 2022