This summer, Stephanie Blount provided us with a beautiful report that outlines recommendations for how to support these cooperatives in their path to business independence and sustainability.  Here are some excerpts from this report…..

“[A cooperative is] an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.”

– Official definition of ‘cooperative’ according to Rwanda MINICOM

 

“Independence” can be defined in a variety of ways. The implicit assumption is that independence in this context should be equated with some measure of monetary success. However, The Ihangane Project recognizes the utility of a multi-dimensional reading of the word. Indeed, even the Oxford Dictionary definition: “Freedom from control, influence, support, aid, or the like,” suggests that the concept itself is of utmost complexity, and its interpretation very personal.

COOPERATIVE GOALS:

 

The discussion of “goals” occurred rather early on during my time in Rwanda and perhaps as a result, the level of communication was not as strong as I would have liked. Individual women seemed to have different interpretations of “goals” – some were expressly more business related, and others more personal (see section on Household Assessments). But some coherent themes emerged which I classify into 3 distinct sections below. I also include a fourth section which I believe to be just as important but which was not mentioned by the women. I believe that the women of both Ihangane Women’s Association and Covaru Cooperative would equate achieving these 4 Goals with achieving “independence” and “success”.

 

I will have reached my Goals if I can…

1. … make an income large enough to sustain my family.

2. … become a skilled artisan who makes craft work of the highest quality in Rwanda.

3. … acquire business skills and a business-minded approach.

4. … become self-assured and confident in my abilities and personal value.                

                                               

SWOT Analysis:

 

To achieve the goals outlined above, a robust business plan must be developed. A SWOT analysis will provide the groundwork upon which to build this plan. The outcomes of this analysis will dictate the “next steps” taken on the road to independence. Below I outline the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Ihangane Women’s Association and Covaru Cooperative.  There will be areas of significant overlap in the SWOT analyses of both. However, the groups do possess some fundamentally different characteristics that are a function of their history and group make-up. For this reason, I will list shared strengths and weaknesses together and provide a separate list of attributes that are applicable to each group respectively. It is also important to note that at times, even shared characteristics may differ in subtle ways. I will elaborate upon such nuances in the recommendations section. I do not distinguish between opportunities and threats for each group respectively as the external characteristics that may benefit or harm both cooperatives are the same.

 

Shared Strengths: The value that already exists within the business

·         Community ties and connections
·         Natural Resources and Access to low cost Materials
·         Capacity for Increased Production

Ihangane Women’s Association Strengths

·         Commitment to Business Success
·         Skills Knowledge- some members have extensive experience making traditional crafts

Covaru Cooperative Strengths

·         Association History
       Spirit of Independence
       Group Cohesion
       Innovation

Shared Weaknesses: Characteristics internal to the business that require improvement

·         Internal Performance measurement- measuring their performance or determining “success"

      Innovation and Skills Strengthening

·        Power dynamics - Some cooperative members hesitate to express opinions/ideas to the leadership and broader group. This could be a symptom of a number of issues including low self-confidence, a lack of understanding of the expectations of membership in a cooperative etc.

      Location- Trends in handicraft design are set in the nation’s capital and Ruli is a 2+ hour drive from Kigali.

Fostering Empowerment and Self-Efficacy:

 

Another item worthy of note is that of the 12 home visits conducted, 9 were at the homes of Covaru members. At first I assumed there was simply more enthusiasm within the Covaru group about my involvement, but in retrospect I believe the Covaru women were more aggressive about wanting me to visit than the Ihangane women. I don’t think the fact that Ihangane is comprised of a number of HIV+ women is incidental to this outcome. Self-confidence and personal value is undoubtedly lower among the women of Ihangane Women’s Association. This was apparent not just by the fact that fewer Ihangane women approached me to visit their homes, but also in the content of conversation I held with women of both groups. Covaru women would ask me pointed questions about myself and about their business that Ihangane women never did. I have already suggested the importance of empowerment training for both groups, but the home visits solidified that this is especially necessary for Ihangane.

 

Measuring Success:

The principle differences between the women of Ihangane and Covaru turn out not to be explicitly monetary in nature; indeed the main difference on average is whether or not the woman has children. This may be a function of age as Covaru women are younger on average. (Of course, the fact that Ihangane women are more likely to have children does have some fiscal import because it means that they require more financial support to survive. But from the standpoint of the entire household, both groups experience equivalent financial instability.) Because their financial situations are comparable, is impossible to identify ‘indicators of financial success’ by comparing Covaru women’s experiences and Ihangane women’s experiences. However, by analyzing the group of interviews as a whole, I have singled out the following as potential specific indicators of financial success that would be useful to measure whether membership in either cooperative is yielding positive results in the women’s lives over time:

i. Existence of savings

ii. Number of children who have completed primary school

iii. Location of home – in or out of agglomeration

iv. Hours of free time per day

v. Number of animals/square meters of land purchased since joining

Kigali Field Trips:

I organized individual trips to Kigali for both cooperatives with the intention of exposing the women to the products manufactured by their stiffest competition. The idea was to position the groups in such a way that they were primed for self-reflection. Without leading them to the answers, I wanted them to conduct a critical comparison between their products and what they observed in the stores frequented by the consumers they would like to target. In all of our conversations prior to the Kigali visit, each woman opined that the main inhibitor to the businesses’ success was insufficient demand/lack of a market place. In the post-Kigali recap however, the women agreed that their primary inhibitor was comparatively low quality and a lack of innovation.

Acquiring an understanding of how to turn the concept of ‘innovative design’ into tangible products is critical for cooperative success in this field. Every store proprietor and sales person we spoke with during our tour of handicrafts in Kigali was explicit about the need for today’s artisans to take a novel approach to traditional handicrafts.