Outcry over youth participation in cooperatives
FRANCISTOWN: The negligible number of the youth who actively take part in cooperatives is a cause of great concern.
This came to the fore during the recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Francistown Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited (FMPSL).
Answering a question from a youth who wanted to know why their participation in the affairs of cooperatives is very low, the chairperson of FMPSL, Smarts Shabani, explained that one of the reasons for the status quo is that the youth want quick returns.
“The question that you have asked has and is still concerning us very much. We want young people to join cooperatives in large numbers in order to inject fresh impetus into the cooperatives. However, the youth must also not expect everything on a silver platter. They must go to different cooperatives to ask what they can benefit,” said Shabani.
Shabani was retained in his position following an election during the AGM and is deputised by the former mayor of Francistown, Ephraim Maiketso.
John Maseko, principal cooperative auditor in the Ministry of Entrepreneurship echoed Shabani’s words.
Maseko acknowledged that government is seriously concerned about the youths’ disinterest in cooperatives. He underscored the need to debunk the belief that cooperatives are exclusive clubs of old people.
“One of the challenges that we have discovered as the cause for the youth to become cooperators in satisfactory numbers is that they want to get quick returns,” a concerned Maseko said.
He said government has embarked on outreach programmes through workshops to reach out to the youth. This, Maseko added, is in line with the Cooperative Transformation Strategy for Botswana, which strives to reach out to the youth and women.
The strategy aims to lure vulnerable population groups (youth and women) into forming cooperatives businesses.
“We do outreach programmes to attract young people to join cooperatives. In the past, we went to brigades with a view of encouraging students who were about to complete their studies to pool the skills they acquired from the different courses they were studying and form cooperatives,” said Maseko.
Earlier, the Deputy Court President of Phase 4 Customary Court, Sam Masunga, also expressed the same sentiments in his keynote address, which he said were in line with the Cooperatives Transformation Strategy.
One of cooperatives even suggested that parents should teach their children about the importance of joining cooperatives at family level to entice them to join.
The government’s cooperative strategy is also in sync with the Botswana Cooperative Association (BOCA), the apex body of cooperatives in the country, International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the United Nations (UN) ideals. The ICA is the independent association that unites, represents and serves cooperatives worldwide that was created in 1895.
According to the ICA report of 2021, cooperatives can play a crucial role in solving the challenges of young people, whilst also contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 8 on decent work and SDG 4 on quality education.
Its five key focus areas are employment, education, inequalities, engagement and civic participation and entrepreneurship. The report also highlights ways in which cooperatives can improve their support and engagement towards young people.
By improving knowledge of cooperatives, communicating their benefits effectively, and by developing democratic and inclusive cultures of cooperation, the cooperative business model can be a truly viable alternative for solving the challenges facing young people, which have been amplified against a new backdrop of insecurity and inequality emerging since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report says.
“As people-centered enterprises, cooperatives lay the foundations for sustainable development. As acknowledged in the UN World Youth Report, cooperatives “are committed to offering decent working conditions, developing the skills of youth that have no prior work experience, and employing those who for a variety of reasons find it difficult to secure employment in traditional labour markets. These aspects directly contribute to the achievement of two UN Sustainable Development Goals for youth: SDG4: “Quality education” and SDG8: “Decent work and economic growth””.
This holistic dimension, the report adds, responds to youth’s ambitions of not only building a sustainable project in economic terms, but also from social and environmental perspectives.
“Therefore, cooperatives represent a suitable business model for young entrepreneurs aiming at actively contributing to the prosperity and wellbeing of their communities. The UN recognises cooperatives as key drivers of youth social entrepreneurship and development.”