Strengthening cooperatives by working together

SCOPEinsight and Nuru International have been working together to strengthen cooperatives since 2017. Together, they have made a significant impact on the assessed cooperatives. Read on to learn about how Nuru uses SCOPE Assessments and reports to tailor their cooperative training.

Nuru International works to strengthen cooperatives

Nuru International is an U.S.-based nonprofit organization that works to lift vulnerable people out of extreme poverty. Nuru currently works in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, and is expanding to work across Coastal West Africa. The organization was founded in 2007.

Nuru’s vision is to cultivate lasting meaningful choices in the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in the world by creating an enabling environment that equips people to begin charting a path out of extreme poverty. Nuru works to strengthen local farmers through cooperatives, which is the entry point for their work. By improving service delivery capacity for these cooperatives, such as access to inputs and markets, Nuru increases resilience for both farmers and their cooperatives. The exact objective in each intervention is tailored to what the cooperative and its members need.

A partnership towards collective impact

Nuru and SCOPEinsight have worked together since 2017 in Ethiopia and Kenya, and their partnership will expand this upcoming year into Nigeria and Burkina Faso. Nuru local organizations in each country use SCOPE Assessments to determine the needs of their partner cooperatives. The results from the assessment reports indicate the areas of professionalism that most require assistance. This information is then used to create tailored capacity building plans for the cooperatives.

The value of SCOPE Assessments in Ethiopia

A recent conversation between SCOPEinsight and members of the Nuru Ethiopia team led to a deeper understanding of how the SCOPE Assessment data is used in Ethiopia. After an assessment is finalized, Nuru receives an assessment report for each assessed cooperative. Each cooperative then uses the information from this report to create its own summary reports for its cooperative leaders. These summary reports are translated into the local language and presented directly to the cooperative leaders, members, and board.

The SCOPEinsight assessment data is helpful in determining the strengths and weaknesses of a cooperative. Nuru uses this information to develop an action plan for supporting cooperatives in addressing their greatest weaknesses. Biruk Abayneh, the Cooperative and Agribusiness Development Manager for Nuru Ethiopia, described the report as “eye-opening” and explained that it showed which areas required the most focus. The reports provided by SCOPEinsight support Nuru’s efforts to accelerate the professionalization of cooperatives and maximize the knowledge from the SCOPE Assessments.

“Farmer cooperatives are the foundational structure with which Nuru works to ensure rural smallholder farmers are provided with the support needed to chart a path out of extreme poverty. Nuru uses SCOPEinsight assessments to benchmark how Nuru cooperatives are performing against other cooperatives in a multitude of domains. These assessments provide Nuru with a detailed look into what is working, what could be improved, and how. Local Nuru organizations use SCOPEinsight in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria to target areas for improvement and capacity building, both for the cooperative leadership and board, and for the individual farmers. By offering targeted coaching, service delivery, and technical assistance to cooperatives, Nuru is able to best meet the needs of farmers, while adapting to changing conditions and contexts.”

Ian Schwenke; Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Sr. Associate at Nuru International

The positive impact of Nuru’s training

Nuru uses the Agribusiness Leadership Program (ALP) for cooperative training, and further coaching and support for maximum impact on the cooperatives. Each cooperative receives focused training on specific relevant areas of improvement. Lessons from previous cooperative trainings are taken into consideration when training the next cooperative. This leads to strong, independent cooperatives that can benefit their members and local communities. In 2021, Nuru Ethiopia found that their cooperatives averaged a SCOPE score of 4.1, thanks to the training provided. In 2022, the Nuru Ethiopian cooperatives further improved, with an average score of 4.4. These are both significantly higher than the Ethiopian national average score of 3.2.

The importance of strategic partnerships

Nuru’s use of the SCOPEinsight data leads to more efficient and effective interventions, facilitating significant improvements in the assessed cooperatives that often far exceed the regional benchmarks. It is through this partnership that both organizations can get the most value out of their work together. By working together, Nuru and SCOPEinsight achieve a far greater impact on farmer cooperatives and the vulnerable farmers they serve.

Are you interested in professionalizing agribusinesses? Contact us today to see how we can work together.

Back to news