Determinants of the Governance Performance of Producer Organizations: Case Study of Village Cotton Producers Cooperatives in Benin

Aims: This article aims to analyze the main factors that influence the performance of the governance of Producers' Organizations in the context of the Uniform Act of OHADA devoted to the Law on cooperative societies.

Study Design: The case study is based on Village Cotton Producers Cooperatives (CVPCs). Governance performance of CVPCs referred to and has been measured through respectively quality of internal governance (administrative) and quality of services provided to members.

Place and Duration of Study: The study has been carried out in the Department of Alibori, northern Benin Republic. Data collection period run from July to October 2019.

Methodology: We included 242 CVPCs selected in the six municipalities in the Department of Alibori. Primary data relating to socio-economic characteristics (the size of the CVPC, the age, the proportion of women in group, profile of leaders), and governance parameters related to internal governance and the quality of services provided to members.

Results: The results revealed that internal governance is generally poor and the quality of services provided to members is good. The proportion of women and the profile of leaders determine (bad) internal governance compared to good governance. The low profile of the leaders, the small size and the low proportion of women determine the quality of the services provided to members. The more the profile of leaders improves, the more likely it is to have good governance. On the other hand, the more the proportion of women in CVPCs increases, the more there is a chance of having bad internal governance rather than good governance.

Conclusion: These results suggest that the lower or medium the profile of leaders, the poorer or average internal governance and services provided to members will be. A better combination of all these determinants will improve both the quality of internal governance and the services provided to members in a CVPC.