Abstract:
In most rural parts of Ethiopia, women have unequal opportunity for economic, social,
and political participation and also a visible majority of them being poor. Rural Women
Economic empowerment, as a policy approach, uses different mechanisms to empower
women; out of which organizing women into cooperatives is attracting the attention of
many organizations. Concerning this scenario, this research was conducted to assess
Women Economic Empowerment through rural saving and Credit Cooperative in Meta
Robi District of Oromia National Region state with specific objectives of examine
women’s perception on economic empowerment through rural Saving and Credit
Cooperatives, assessing the current level of women’s economic empowerment through
rural SACCOs Saving and Credit Cooperatives and identify factors affecting women’s
economic empowerment in rural Saving and Credit Cooperatives. The results of the study
indicated that there are economic benefits for women participating in rural Saving and
Credit Cooperatives through providing loan, and financial training enable the members
to perform income generating activities; which help them to increase their income,
saving and moderately decision making power. Similarly the result shows that
participation in cooperative services has a positive impact on economic empowerment of
women. This is also an indication, being organized into cooperatives is very important
for women to improve their economic condition in rural areas. Many constraints were
faced by the women in the study area to be addressed by giving proper attention while
strategy and policy preparation aimed to implement for women economic empowerment.
Hence the study, recommends that quality extension services, personal skill, training,
education and gender awareness program for rural women needs special attention to
increase their empowerment level. This research recommended that the government
organization, non-government organization and the researchers should strengthen rural
women saving and credit cooperatives and should target those suffering most from
economic empowerment failures to create quality women communities.
