The aim of this thesis is to critically examine whether cooperatives can be effective at
poverty reduction, in response to the renewed call for a cooperative strategy to poverty
reduction. The thesis studied cooperatives as a social organization and examined the
interrelationships between the cooperatives and the members, the factors that hold both
together to promote and deter the success of the cooperatives, the motivation for
members’ participation and their expectations from the cooperatives. These were then
used to discuss and evaluate cooperatives as a poverty reduction strategy.
The study followed an inductive method for data collection and analysis. Focus group
discussions were held with members and managers of two cooperatives and the constant
comparative method was used to analyze the data generated.
The study concluded that there are three important factors that can determine if
cooperatives can be effective at lifting the members above poverty. The conception and
ideas of the members; that is their expectations of what a cooperative should and could
do, their motivation for participation; are they fully motivated to actively participate? and
what are the experiences of poverty in their lives; how do they conceptualize poverty?
When these factors were combined in the study, the data concluded that cooperatives can
not effectively lift the participants under study above poverty, although it could assist
them to ‘manage’ poverty. Thus from the result of the study, the cooperative as a poverty
reduction strategy will only act to overburden the cooperatives, yet the cooperatives can
be assisted to perform within its capabilities.