Economic development and women empowerment in Zamimpilo art and craft co-operative
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Date
2018
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Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
Development agencies, non-government Organizations (NGOs) and government organizations around the world aim for the betterment of women in all spheres of their lives. Empowerment has been considered the main focal point towards the achievement of the wellbeing of women. The study was about cooperatives and women empowerment. It investigated the extent to which participation, empowerment, capacitation and benefits of membership contribute in enabling cooperatives to empower women. This study applied the Capability Approach (CA) in an attempt to understand the need and importance of capabilities to women in a cooperative. The quality of life of an individual is analysed in terms of the core concepts of functionings and capability, thus the CA focuses directly on the quality of life that individuals are actually able to achieve.
The Capability Approach proposed that the most vital thing to deliberate when valuing well-being is what people are actually able to do. Capacitation to disadvantaged people is very important in that it ensures services and assistants directly meet their needs. Participatory planning can be regarded as an instrument for identifying the needs of all persons within a community, a way of constructing harmony, and means of empowering deprived or marginalised groups. Participatory development has created the need that there should be inclusion of everyone concerned in the decision making that enables the utilization of all ideas and experiences especially of the poor in rural communities and that they should have influence in the decision making process.
The study hypothesized that the perceived level of participation; empowerment and capacitation will determine the benefit of membership in a cooperative. The survey was conducted using a Five-Level Likert scale to decipher respondents’ perceptions of level of participation, empowerment, capacitation, and perceived benefits. In the beginning of analysis, responses (N=110) were reduced using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) to determine how questionnaire items contributed to variables under consideration, variables extracted were correlated and regressed. A linear regression analysis was used to describe how a benefit of membership mediates the relationship between participation, empowerment and capacitation.
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The results showed that members’ perceived levels of empowerment mediate their Perceived Benefits of membership (PERBEME). This shows how benefits of membership in a cooperative are determined and empowerment experienced. Cooperatives have a potential of empowering women and that is achieved through democratic operation, where members equally participate in the daily business.
The findings showed a correlation between independent and dependent variables. The findings further demonstrated that capacitation, empowerment and participation, influence change on the benefits of membership in a co-operative.
Description
Theses Submitted to the Department of Sociology in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Sociology in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 2018.
Keywords
Economic Development, Women Empowerment