Paper
From Access To Empowerment: Gender Issues In Microfinance
Does microfinance actually lead to women's empowerment?
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This paper observes that microfinance programs providing loans to women have been on the rise due to a higher repayment rate by women. The donors anticipate that the programs will lead to:
- Economic empowerment of women;
- Increased wellbeing for women and their families;
- Wider social and political empowerment.
The paper informs that the available evidence questions the assumptions of benefits accruing to the women by different microfinance programs. The evidence suggests:
- Women benefited from some programs but limitations exist to the degree to which they benefited;
- Negative impacts exist due to the financial sustainability principles imposed by the donors.
The paper identifies the limitations of the programs that call for more explicit measures to address gender subordination. It states that there is a need for:
- Mainstreaming gender and empowerment concerns throughout the activities of a program;
- Donors including empowerment concerns in all funding guidelines, monitoring and evaluation and program support;
- Designing complementary services better to make a substantial contribution to both empowerment and repayment rates;
- Changing the donor policy - donors accommodating both empowerment and sustainability aims.
