Collaboration among Government Co-operative Supporting Organisations in Innovations Design and Dissemination to Primary Co-operative Societies in Tanzania

Abstract

Most primary co-operatives in Tanzania have experienced various challenges including resources deficit, mismanagement, inadequate co-operative education and global competition among others making them unable to design and utilise sound innovations. In realization of such challenges and recognition of their socio-economic potential, several government co-operative supporting organisations (GCSOs) have been established to facilitate co-operative growth and development. This study assessed the extent of collaboration among GCSOs in innovations design and dissemination to primary co-operative societies (PCSos) in Tanzania. Specifically, the study established the initiatives undertaken in each innovation chain of the studied GCSOs in terms of innovation ideas generation, conversion and dissemination to PCSos in the past fifteen years (2007-2022) period; determined the extent to which GCSOs have been collaborating in areas of innovations design and dissemination to PCSos and established the innovations designed and disseminated in collaboration among studied GCSOs to PCSos in the period under study (2007-2022). The study adopted the case study research design using multiple cases where five cases were picked. The study population included the selected GCSOs operating in Tanzania which formed the unit of analysis for this study. Primary data were collected from GCSOs executives and staff using focus groups-participant observation was also used. The findings show that, the innovation chains of most of the studied GCSOs were weak and disjointed. Equally, innovation collaboration was found to be lacking in most of the GCSOs. Moreover, limited traces of inter-organisational collaboration in innovations design and dissemination to PCSos were found. It is advised that GCSOs should work to ensure innovation value chain strengths through genuine allocation and prioritisation of resources. More efforts such as setting innovation units and or hubs, among others to enhance innovation activities and collaborations within GCSOs are advised. Such efforts may eventually graduate into inter-organisational collaborations which are currently missing.