Thesis on Empower Women Through Micro Credit Programmes

INTRODUCTION

A significant development in recent years has been the mushrooming of community-based organizations and initiatives at the local level for women. Reports indicate that self-help programmes, often in the form of savings and credit or micro credit schemes, have succeeded in changing the lives of poor women, enhancing incomes and generating positive externalities such as increased self-esteem. This paper addresses the challenging issue of whether self-help micro credit programmes are tools for empowering poor women. 'Micro credit is about much more than access to money. It is about women gaining control over the means to make a living. It is about women lifting themselves out of poverty and vulnerability. It is about women achieving economic and political empowerment within their homes, their villages, their countries.' As Noeleen Heyzer of UNIFEM reveals in the above statement, there is clearly an important role for microfinance to play in the ‘empowerment’ of women. However, there remains much debate over exactly what this role should look like, as well as over exactly what is meant by the concept of ‘women’s empowerment.’ Much of the debate centers on the perceived tradeoffs between women’s empowerment efforts and organizational financial sustainability. Many microfinance institutions (MFIs) struggle with if and how they should incorporate empowerment strategies in their organizations in light of these perceived tradeoffs. Recent trends in donor funding away from organizations that place primary emphasis on women’s empowerment and toward organizations focused on achieving financial sustainability have created added skepticism around the value of adopting empowerment approaches in microfinance institutions. This paper challenges leaders in the microfinance field to look beyond these debates and trends and consider adopting new ‘participatory approaches’ to empowerment that will allow MFIs to