Evidence-Based Practices on Co-operative Societies Information Record Management

Co-operatives have proved to be one of the driving forces in the socio-economic empowerment of its members. The Government of Tanzania has been implementing the Poverty Reduction Strategy by encouraging people to form co-operatives in order to improve their economic prospects. Establishing a primary co-operative society involves a process which passes through the district co-operative office, regional co-operative office, and the registrar of co-operatives’ office at the national level. These processes bring about the issue of documentation and record keeping. The processing of records is done manually by using pen and paper, or electronically using computers, smart phones, and cameras. The research work essentially used questionnaires, interviews, observations, and document reviews to gather data. The findings of this study show that 8 out of 13 respondents (61.5%) responded to physically visiting co-operative offices to acquire existing records about co-operative societies. This vividly explains the use of manual procedures for co-operative records management thus leading to unsolved challenges such as; data inaccuracy and inconsistency, bureaucracy during physical access, money and time consumption due to geographical challenges, lack of transparency, and improper presentation of co-operative information in request. This ongoing research work avails a web-mobile approach named Co-operative Records Management System (CRMS). CRMS offers a solution that will enable District Co-operative officers (DCOs) to record, process, and generate electronic reports on co-operative societies’ records thus mitigating challenges about, but not limited to; time wastage, inconsistency in recording financial records as well as reducing costs for data acquisition. Thus, this paper presents evidence-based practices on co-operative societies’ information record management, a case of the Kilimanjaro region with a designed proposed solution.