The blogger (left) and Garang, a South Sudan cooperative officer
The government of South Sudan needs to give more support to the cooperative movement if it has to empower its citizens. This is the opinion of one, Peter Manyok Garang, a trained cooperative officer. Peter is an agriculturalist with Norwegian Peoples Aid, Twic County, Jonglei State. He trains farmers on crop husbandry, ox-plow farming and they also distribute seeds and farming tools to the returnees. He was first employed in 2004 and went for further studies in 2005 in Uganda. He enrolled for a 2-year diploma course in Uganda Cooperative College. He undertook another diploma course in Project Planning and Entrepreneurship Development in the same college. After his training in management of cooperatives, he is now fully engaged in training those who are eager to form cooperative societies. One of the groups he has trained is made up of 35 women in Twic County who have formed a society through which they have been able to build a hotel in Panyagoor, the Freedom Hotel. “I train those who are eager but have no idea where to start. I help them formulate policies to help them operate their society,” says Peter. This entails helping groups come up with by-laws and setting the criteria for picking members and he also helps groups to decide on the kind of cooperative they want to operate. This may be a fishery, pottery, farming or business-based. According to him, forming cooperative societies has many benefits, the most immediate being that it boosts the morale of the community and of individuals. “People are able to come together and pool their resources together and start a project, which an individual cannot do alone.” Another benefit to the community is that the prizes of goods and services are made cheaper since they are locally available and are not sourced from outside the country. Besides, the cooperatives provide employment opportunities for people who would otherwise be idle. Peter is of the opinion that a lot needs to be done to make the cooperative movement stronger in South Sudan. “Not many people have been trained in running cooperatives and the government needs to do embark on this urgently. I hope things will be better after the referendum.” This is the referendum that is expected in 2011. For now, one of the challenges facing many groups is lack of materials, which have to be purchased from outside the country. Again, many people are not patient and want immediate returns from their investment in cooperative societies. “Individual problems should not be solved through cooperatives,” that is Peter’s advice to those who belong to these cooperatives. Another barrier to the growth of cooperatives is that peoples sources of income are limited due to high unemployment rates and so there is low purchase of shares in the groups that exist currently. But according to Peter, there is a glimmer of hope – “I think the cooperative movement would be stronger after the referendum, if the country splits, because there would be more resources in the south.” Currently, the government is has a ministry that deals with cooperative society issues. The government has been helping such groups through disbursement of loans. Local non-governmental organizations like Lutheran World Federation and Norwegian Peoples Aid have also played a great role in supporting such groups by giving loans and training members on running of cooperatives. While appreciating the government’s efforts in supporting the sector, Peter reckons that the government needs to train more personnel in this field to help achieve rapid development in the south of Sudan. The government of Southern Sudan has a ministry of Cooperatives and Rural Development to help in running cooperatives. “The government should also improve roads in order to increase accessibility in the rural areas. This will boost the cooperative movement,” says Peter. “Members of cooperatives themselves too should seek more advice about how to run the groups, otherwise, they may end up in court to their own detriment,” he adds. Recently, the Kenyan Minister for Cooperative Development, Joseph Nyagah said at a meeting with South Sudan government officials that the cooperative movement is vital for a country’s development, citing Kenya, where he said that the movement contributes 43 percent to Kenya’s economy. He said that a team of experts was working on modalities of including officials from the Cooperative Bank of Kenya and the Co-operative Insurance Company of Kenya to help boost the cooperative movement in South Sudan. This may also entail training South Sudanese cooperative development officials in Kenyan institutions in order to enhance their skills in managing the movement.
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