Facilitating social enterprise development through collective marketing: insights from Bukonzo Joint Co-operative Union, Western Uganda

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jfairtrade.1.1.0013
• Published date: 01 February 2019
• Date: 01 February 2019
• Pages: 13-26
• Author: Robert Ikwera,Ronald Twongyirwe
• Subject Matter: collective marketing,social enterprise,development finance,SACCO,Fairtrade certification,premium markets,coffee,co-operative,smallholder farmers

13

Facilitating social enterprise development through collective marketing:

insights from Bukonzo Joint Co-operative Union, Western Uganda

Robert Ikwera and Ronald Twongyirwe

Robert Ikwera is a livelihoods and Fairtrade specialist with more than eight years’ experience

working with smallholder farmers and vulnerable households on economic strengthening

interventions. Leveraging his work experience and academic qualifications, he is currently

engaged in research on agricultural co-operatives and youth skills development. Recently,

he has been working as a Youth and Public–Private Partnerships Specialist with Action for

Community Development on a USAID/PEPFAR-funded project, providing technical oversight

and guidance to a number of implementing partners in the consortium. Previously, he has

implemented producer organisation capacity development programmes in the Rwenzori

region, leading to the certification of co-operatives as fairtrade and the registration of

producer groups as co-operatives.

Ronald Twongyirwe is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies at Mbarara

University of Science and Technology. He teaches and researches on a wide range of topics

including human–environmental interactions in complex socio-ecological systems; understanding

complex (rural/urban) land use, vegetation and hydrological interactions; biodiversity

conservation; emerging (debates on) climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies at

both local and international levels (e.g. REDD+); governance and environmental systems; soil

and environmental science and policy; environment and development; extractive industries with

a focus on oil and gold; and natural resource management. Prior to this, he worked with the

Uganda Carbon Bureau, where he was involved in developing forestry carbon offset projects

and interacted with various certification schemes, including Fairtrade.

Abstract

Collective marketing is an avenue through which farmers could receive higher returns from

their produce. Bukonzo Joint Co-operative Union exemplifies this: it has obtained both

Fairtrade and organic certifications and, by following the Fairtrade ethos and offering farmers

a guaranteed (and often) higher price, potentially has a strong role in livelihood improvement,

poverty reduction, social inclusion and rural development. In this study, we showcase the role of

collective marketing, explore the challenges and analyse the relevance of finance institutions in

the development of co-operatives. Our qualitative study shows that collective marketing mixed

with the Fairtrade ethos could strongly encourage social enterprise development and could lead

to livelihood improvement in marginalised areas. However, one of the most important barriers

is limited finances for the production of high-quality coffee, purchasing members’ coffee

under the Fairtrade label and investment in infrastructure: availability of ethically appropriate,

affordable funding options is critical in the development of social enterprises.

Keywords: collective marketing; social enterprise; development finance; SACCO; Fairtrade

certification; premium markets; coffee; co-operative; smallholder farmers