Kisumu Waste Management & SACCO (Credit and Savings Cooperative)

Kisumu, Kenya

Primary information

Number of members

140

Type of members

Waste picker support organization

Occupation of members

Waste pickers

Type of Organization

Cooperative

Organizational Reach

Local

Membership

Yes

Organization Structure

The cooperative society has an executive committee, management and a supervisory committee and the leaders are selected during the Annual General Meeting. Some positions are yearly while others are for two years or three years. The Chairperson and Vice chairperson take 3 years in the management committee. 12 members constitute the management committee, 7 men and 5 women. Recruitment of new members is done through the identification of groups in waste handling and through the sensitization of members to join the SACCO. The members pay a membership fee of 600 shillings. Records kept are the organization’s member’s registers, shares, receipt inventory, visitor’s book, registrations and pass books.

Objectives

Capacity building, social and economic empowerment of waste pickers, achieve efficient sustainable solid waste management in the city

Partnering organizations

KMC - support received is policy formulation for a period of two years. Kisumu Polytechnics - Capacity Building for a period of one year. Kenya National Federation of Cooperatives - capacity building for a period of one year. Ministry of Cooperatives - policy and regulations for a period of one year. ILO - funding for a period of two years. UNHABITAT/SIDA - funding for a period of two years.

Affiliations

Donor, Waste picker organization

Funding

Donor funded, Interest on loans, Self funded

Internal elections

Annually, every 2 years, every 3 years

Women composition

56,4%

Social networking sites

Benefits

Member benefits

Savings or credit scheme, Training & advocacy

Number of credit / saving members?

140

Services

Challenges to access waste

Lack of education & training, Lack of infrastructure & resources, Lack of recognition, Negative attitude towards waste

Complementary Information

Information source

Africa 2009

Comments / Narrative

The long term goals of this SACCO are to evolve from a small micro-finance organization to a mainstream bank and to be able to manage waste not only in Kisumu, but in other urban areas.