Co-operatives and Basotho youth

As I write I am nursing aches and pains from a pony trek around the beautiful hills of Lesotho. I had some time off over the weekend and visited a lovely place called Malealea about 60 kms from Maseru. It was nice to get out of Maseru and see more of Lesotho and Malealea Lodge is a great place from which you can easily explore the surrounding areas either on foot or on the back of a pony. It is quite scary as the pony navigates the rocky mountain passes but so worth it to enjoy the spectacular views of the low lying valleys and the beautiful hills and see Basotho people going about their daily lives. Passing Basotho (term used for the people of Lesotho) on their ponies, horses and donkeys as they go on their way, seeing shepherds herding their goats, sheep or cows, often with a couple of dogs to help them and people tending their very dry fields and hoping for rains soon.
I have now been in Lesotho for 4.5 weeks and in the last 2 weeks I have been concentrating on trying to understand and investigate the context of co-operatives and youth in Lesotho and also getting research activities going with the youth and student co-operatives.

I have being doing interviews with people from Department of Co-operatives, other government Ministries such as Ministry of Youth, Agriculture and also different stakeholders involved with co-operatives. These interviews went well and they have helped me understand the context of co-operatives and youth in Lesotho and some wider issues in the country. Economically Lesotho relies on agriculture, remittances from Basotho people working in South Africa particularly in the mines and also through a trade agreement between South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland and Nambia. This agreement is based on set of trade tariffs and disproportionately distributes money from South Africa to the other countries especially Lesotho and Swaziland. In fact it provides Lesotho’s government with 65% of its revenue. The number of Basotho working in the mines has drastically reduced in the last ten years and this has caused problems for government revenue and personal revenue. Basotho farmers have also been affected by changes in weather patterns – at this current time it should have been raining since August and there have only been a few days of rainfall since I have been here. Lesotho also seems to have bottle neck in terms of processing raw materials; mohair and wool are a primary agricultural product but none of the many Lesotho blankets are made here they are all made in South Africa. This is a common problem across many sectors, including water. Water is Lesotho’s great resource, they sell to South Africa, the dam projects that have been going on in the last 10 years have brought in important revenue to Lesotho but there is controversy about how much fertile land this has cost the country. Furthermore farmers struggle to have enough water for their crops as there is not the infrastructure to bring the water to their fields. Despite these problems, visitors to Lesotho cannot fail to be struck by how proud Basotho people are of their country and their traditions and how determined they are to improve their lives and take care of themselves and their families.

The interviews highlighted to be that the driving force for youth co-operatives came from interest from youth and teachers to establish co-operatives and was greatly supported by the Department. There was no ‘donor’ driving this but the Co-operative College UK provided a key role in building the capacity and motivation of the youth co-operatives through their presence at the annual youth forums in Lesotho provided since 2008. Generally donors do not play a role in the co-operative sector, IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development) and ILO (International Labour Organisation) are stakeholders for co-operatives but their influence is minimal. This makes the co-operative sector very much a Basotho led and owned approach that has high hopes to address some of the challenges mentioned above; such as getting processing going, supporting farmers to buy inputs and market their products and give people who want to help themselves a group model that fits with these values. Added to this there is a revival of co-operatives taking place in Lesotho, this is characterised by increased interest and priority being placed on co-operatives - this seems to be driven by demand from co-operative members and the ‘mood’ and ‘activities’ of co-operative sectors in other countries in the Region and the ICA Regional Office – again not due to any particular donor.

Part of the revival is about the set up of youth and student co-operatives, there are now over 20 that have registered and 20 – 30 more which are preparing to register. I am conducting research with one youth cooperative in Leribe District, Subeng Dinosaur, about an hour from Maseru. They are the tourist co-operative, I mentioned in my last blog entry that are offering tours of dinosaur footprints and selling handicrafts. Data from interviews highlights that members are developing and learning through their co-operative membership and this is mainly through the annual youth forums (organised by the Co-op College UK and the Department for Co-operatives here), from other members and through the experience of being in a co-operative. They receive some income from co-operative but not much. However they are committed members as there are little livelihood options open to them in their community and believe the co-operative takes time to develop and will bring them income in the long term. Furthermore they place emphasis on the co-operative keeping them focussed and busy and doing something positive instead of remaining idle. They are supported by the Department, but this is quite minimal and they also receive some donations from tourists who have visited them, however they are very self-driven and self-motivated. That said they only have a low number of members and whilst these members are committed, they find it difficult to recruit new members as they think other youth do not share the commitment to co-op principles and time it takes to get a co-operative going and are just interested in what income they can get from the co-op.

I am also doing research with a student co-operative based at Mohales Hoek High School, Rise and Shine Student Co-operative, about 2 hours from Maseru. They have 40 members and primarily do savings and credit. They do provide an important source of income, through sharing of profits and through the availability of loans to the members, many of whom who struggle to pay school fees and they primarily use the money they get from the co-operative for this. They also learn and develop through the co-operative, learning how to manage their personal money, developing self confidence, leadership skills and some business skills such as accounts and how to handle clients. The co-operative also do fundraising and support other students at the school, particularly the vulnerable students. Orphans are a big problem at this school, they estimate 60% of the students are orphans and the co-operative tries to help these students through loans for school fees and also for the particularly vulnerable they donate clothes etc.

I am also trying to identify a youth co-operatives in Maseru to work with. I have met with one youth co-operative, Ledcon. They are a professional consultancy and offer consultancy services in a number of areas included IT, Marketing, Graphic Design and Co-operative Management. I also met with Bocha-Ke-Palesa, another youth co-operative, they are not currently doing many activities but members still consider themselves to be part of the co-operative. However when they joined they were still at school and had time for the co-operative but they are now either in work, or at school and so no longer have much time for the co-operative. That said the member I spoke to thought his co-operative experience was invaluable in preparing him for work – giving him experience and knowledge that helped him get his current job. I am looking forward to doing research with them and finding out what their story is.