Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac

4. Social organisation
- The lost money handling committee, which manages lost property and returns it to its owner;
- The reception committee, which is in charge of contacts with visitors. It employed a chief guide,
Timbwalel, and a second guide, Amane, both 22 in 2010. The first one studied up to the 11 th
level, the second one up to the 12 th (completion of secondary education) (Jo10b/9); in 2012, it
employs two full-time guides, Nane, Zumra's wife, and Burtukan (Crespo, 2012). Visitors pay
admission fees of 5 birrs, equivalent to 0.20 Euro in 2010 (Crespo, 2011);
- The by law preparation committee which prepares future rules and regulations of the
community; they are decided by the general assembly.
According to At05/61, there were in 2005 fifteen and not thirteen committees, like in 2008 according
to Me09/40 (Question 20 in Annex). One of the above thirteen committees did not exist (the underdevelopment
committee), but three other ones did exist:
- The controlling committee for development committee, which controls this one and reports to
the general assembly; it seems that the development committee and its controlling committee
have been brought together later;
- The weekly development committee, which implements day after day the decisions of the
development committee;
- The controlling committee for weekly development committee, which controls this one and
reports to the development committee and the general assembly.
As the committee members change after each election, each cooperative member should in theory
participate to a committee. However, only a small number of Awra Amba members have the skills
required to be chairperson, secretary, or treasurer of a committee. They have to be able to read and
write and to have some management skill, and to have access to relevant contacts in the regional
capital. Therefore, 12 to 15 persons share the main responsibilities, i.e. about 10 % of the cooperative
adults. The committee members enjoy no special privileges and receive no material reward. Their
power is limited because the key decisions are taken, not by them, but by the general assembly of the
cooperative members, and because they are subject at any time to its power of recall (At05/58;
Ya08/114-115; Me09/55). It should be underlined that the founder Zumra is member of both
development and reception committees (Jo10b/9).
According to figures of At05/62, each of the 15 committees (in 2005) brings together 3 to 5 people
(1 to 4 men and 0 to 3 women), except the by law preparation committee, which amounts to 15
people (8 men and 7 women): see Table 3. The average number of members is 4.5, and 3.8 when this
particular committee is excluded. Because women share the household responsibility with men, they
take responsibility in the community (At05/85): they account for 44 % of committee members,
which is lower than the 60 % of women in the population over 19 years, and even than the 51 % of
women in the general population for all ages, that same year 2005. Only 6 committees among 15
have a women's participation equal to or slightly greater than the weight of women in the adult
population, but 3 committees have a women's participation more than two times lower than their
weight in the adult population. Women are especially very much absent in the main committee, the
development one, and in the weekly development committee, where they account in both cases only
for one member among five. They are not especially present in committees dealing with a priori
female issues like education, care, elderly or sanitation. Women are leading some of the committees
(Ya08/79).
According to the community leaders we have contacted, in 2010, the development committee
amounted for 10 members, including 5 under 30 years, one between 30 and 35 years and 4 over 35
years, including Zumra; 5 among the 15 members of the by law preparation committee were under
35 years; 3 among the 5 cooperative leaders were under 30 years. The continuity seems therefore
assured.
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