Solutions to empowering production cooperatives as perceived by national provincial and specialists

Despite various efforts towards empowerment of cooperatives in Iran, much in agreement with this concept and strategies can not be observed. The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the solutions to empowering production cooperatives. The Delphi technique was employed to do this study. The target population consisted of specialists in national provincial and specialists (N=15). Snowball sampling was utilized to select target population. A questionnaire was developed through two rounds to gather data, whose validity and reliability was confirmed. In Round 1, the experts reported 17 types of the solutions to empowering cooperatives. Finally our findings suggested that “Briefing sessions in order to create transparency about the duties, powers and responsibilities of cooperative members in production before their membership”, “Training sessions on principles, patterns and methods of planning for managers of cooperative production”, “Encouraging cooperative production elements to create incentive for active participation”, and also empowering means “The process of improving individual and organizational capacities of all actors involved in cooperative activities, and developing appropriate social and economic conditions in order to eventually enhance cooperative's productivity”.