Microfinance and womens empowerment: Rethinking best practice
Linda Mayoux, Independent advisor Introduction
In the 1990s microfinance targeting women became a major focus of grammatical gender policy in many donor agencies. Literature wide-awake for the 1997 Microcredit Summit, donor policy documents and NGO funding proposals all designate an extremely attractive vision of increasing numbers of expanding, financially self-sustainable microfinance programmes reaching large numbers of women borrowers. Through their contribution to womens ability to earn an income, these programmes are assumed to initiate a series of virtuous spirals of economic empowerment, increased well-being for women and their families and wider brotherly and political empowerment. However, more recently, as the findings of research and experience engender filtered through, this initial enthusiasm is being replaced by scepticism. Here it is argued that, although the widespread complacency about the automatic benefits of microfinance for women needs to be questioned, the shortcomings of quick practice should stimulate the search for improvement and innovation, rather than offer up the basis for cynical inaction.
It is not microfinance per se which is the problem, but the ways in which best practice has become dominated by concerns of financial sustainability. Innovations in some programmes point to a browse of ways in which microfinances contribution to empowerment set up be increased as part of a broader outline for gender transformation.
Questioning virtuous spirals
Microfinance programmes have significant likely for contributing to womens economic, social and political empowerment. Access to nest egg and credit can initiate or strengthen a series of interlinked and mutually reinforcing virtuous spirals of empowerment. Women can use nest egg and credit for economic...If you want to get a full essay, severalise it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com
If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my paper
No comments:
Post a Comment