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.

In Benin, the evolution of the regulatory and operational framework of cooperatives since independence has been associated with different approaches by statute in connection with political choices, management of resources and economic orientation with varying performances. This article discusses the analysis of this development. Data collection, essentially based on the literature review, brings together the main policy documents and legislation over the period under consideration as well as reports from projects and agencies involved. The data analysis is based on the historical analysis of the regulatory, institutional and operational framework. The results showed that the current period marked by the implementation of AUSCOOP is preceded by three main phases. The results showed that the current period, marked by the implementation of AUSCOOP is preceded by three major phases during which the progressively pronounced expression of autonomy was marked by a good production performance while the quality governance has deteriorated and social justice has remained weak. In addition to governance concerns, these cooperatives have always been limited in accessing external financing due to the extent of legal risks which increase economic risks. This is where the 9th Uniform Act of OHADA relating to the law of cooperative societies (AUSCOOP) arises, launched in 2010 and adopted in 2013 in Benin. This analysis suggests that the autonomy promoted by the regulatory, institutional and operational frameworks for the management of cooperative societies should be the subject of an adequate framework in order to limit deviant behavior likely to deteriorate the quality of governance and social justice performance.

The Village Cotton Producers' Groups, which have become Village Cotton Production Cooperatives (CVPC), play an important role for member producers and the entire cotton sector. However, many governance issues have undermined the functioning of these CVPCs, resulting in the erosion of cooperative principles such as social justice practices. OHADA's 9th Uniform Act of Cooperative Society Rights has become the organizational regulatory framework to promote CVPCs as genuine, wellgoverned and efficient economic units. This study aims to describe perceptions of social justice at the level of CVPC as well as to analyze their determinants. The data were collected from 242 CVPC in the six communes of the Alibori department using the simple random sampling method. The data collected relates in particular to the socio-economic characteristics of CVPC as well as members' perceptions of the different types of social justice. The results show that at the CVPC level, we observe an average procedural justice while the distributive and interactional justice are weak. The results also showed that the structural factors (size and gender) of the characteristics of cooperative societies and this influence is particularly exerted by the size dimension. The larger the size, the better the perceptions of justice. The results suggest that the good perception of social justice (distributive and interactional) is promoted within cooperative societies. It is in the interest of obtaining sustainable cooperatives because of their growing membership.