REGIONAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR GENDER EQUALITY: IFAD/ FAO GRANT PROGRAMME Gender and rural microfinance: Reaching and empowering.

REGIONAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR GENDER EQUALITY:

IFAD/ FAO GRANT PROGRAMME

Gender and rural microfinance: Reaching and empowering women

Linda Mayoux and Getaneh Gobazie

What is rural microfinance?• Diversity of institutional forms

– Community-based, self managed savings and credit– NGOs– Specialist MFIs– Agricultural and commercial banks

• Diversity of financial products– Credit and leasing products– Saving and pensions– Insurance – Remittance transfers

• Diversity of non-financial services– Livelihood and business development services– Institution building

Aims of this capacity development

• Give a clear understanding of gender issues in Rural Finance and possible ways forward

• Provide a forum for exchange of experience and ideas between participants on effective strategies and innovation

• Introduce additional resources and information available• Expand the network of institutions developing

approaches and innovations on gender and microfinance• NO BLUEPRINTS: different types of organisation,

products and services• Gender questions and issues to take forward to other

‘mainstream’ training

Contents• Why is gender mainstreaming important in rural

microfinance? • Institutional dimensions of mainstreaming

gender equality and empowerment• Designing financial products: from access to

empowerment• Non-financial services, participation and macro-l

evel strategies: increasing empowerment

• Promoting an enabling environment: issues for funding agencies

Why is gender mainstreaming important?

• Women are at least half the rural population• Poverty reduction• Economic growth• Financial sustainability of microfinance

providers

Gender and micro-finance: evolution of

debates

Self- Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and setting up of the Women’s World Banking network.

1985 Nairobi women’s conference and lobbying by women’s movements for access to poverty-targeted credit programmes and cooperatives .

Increasing targeting of women in rapid expansion of large minimalist poverty-targeted MFIs like Grameen Bank, FINCA and ACCION

1970s credit for women’s economic empowerment

1980s access to poverty-targeted credit

1990s femaletargeting for financial sustainability

2000 onwards split paradigms

Gender equality and women’s empowerment marginalised in both financial sustainability and poverty targeting debates.

Rural Finance and empowerment:Potential virtuous spirals

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC

EMPOWERMENT

INCREASED INCOME

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

CONTROL OVER INCOME AND RESOURCES

ECONOMIC GROWTH

ACCESS TO MARKETS

ENTERPRISE GROWTH

WOMEN’S DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE

SAVINGS AND CREDIT

REPAYMENT

HOUSEHOLD WELL-BEINGNutritionHealthLiteracyHappiness

HOUSEHOLD INCOME UNDER WOMEN’S CONTROL

WOMEN’S WELL-BEING

CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING

POVERTY REDUCTION

MEN’S WELL-BEING

WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS

WOMEN’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT

CONFIDENCE AND SKILLS (POWER WITHIN, POWER TO)

IMPROVED STATUS AND CHANGING ROLES

MOBILITY AND NETWORKS (POWER WITH)

POWER TO CHALLENGE AND CHANGE INEQUALITIES (POWER OVER)

Questioning complacency

SAVINGS AND CREDIT

WOMEN’S DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT

REPAYMENTbut!!!

??Women may givethe loan to men

??Men may take loan

Questioning women’s economic empowerment

WOMEN’S DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE

SAVINGS AND CREDIT

REPAYMENT

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC

EMPOWERMENT

INCREASED INCOME

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

CONTROL OVER INCOME AND RESOURCES

ECONOMIC GROWTH

ACCESS TO MARKETS

ENTERPRISE GROWTH

?Diversion of loan to other uses

??Incomes may be very low

??Men may control income

??All women’s incomeMay go for consumption

??Women may work from home with marketing by men

Questioning women’s

well-being

??Men may withdrawtheir contributionto the household

??Women may foregoown consumption

WOMEN’S DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE

SAVINGS AND CREDIT

REPAYMENT

HOUSEHOLD WELL-BEINGNutritionHealthLiteracyHappiness

HOUSEHOLD INCOME UNDER WOMEN’S CONTROL

WOMEN’S WELL-BEING

CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING

POVERTY REDUCTION

MEN’S WELL-BEING

??Women’s decisions may replicate gender inequality

??Girls may suffer

Questioning women’s social and political empowerment

WOMEN’S DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE

SAVINGS AND CREDIT

REPAYMENT

WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS

WOMEN’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT

CONFIDENCE AND SKILLS (POWER WITHIN, POWER TO)

IMPROVED STATUS AND CHANGING ROLES

MOBILITY AND NETWORKS (POWER WITH)

POWER TO CHALLENGE AND CHANGE INEQUALITIES (POWER OVER)

??Women may work from home

??May replicateand reinforceexisting roles

??Debt maydecrease confidence

??May divert attention fromwider change

Microfinance and disempowerment:potential vicious circles

ALL ASSUMPTIONS MUST BE QUESTIONED

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC

EMPOWERMENT

INCREASED INCOME

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

CONTROL OVER INCOME AND RESOURCES

ECONOMIC GROWTH

ACCESS TO MARKETS

ENTERPRISE GROWTH

WOMEN’S DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE

SAVINGS AND CREDIT

REPAYMENT

HOUSEHOLD WELL-BEINGNutritionHealthLiteracyHappiness

HOUSEHOLD INCOME UNDER WOMEN’S CONTROL

WOMEN’S WELL-BEING

CHILDREN’S WELL-BEING

POVERTY REDUCTION

MEN’S WELL-BEING

WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS

WOMEN’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT

CONFIDENCE AND SKILLS (POWER WITHIN, POWER TO)

IMPROVED STATUS AND CHANGING ROLES

MOBILITY AND NETWORKS (POWER WITH)

POWER TO CHALLENGE AND CHANGE INEQUALITIES (POWER OVER)

?? ??

QUESTIONS SO FAR?

WHAT IS WOMEN’S

EMPOWERMENT?

Wom

en:

Pow

er to

skills

resources

Wom

en

Power w

ithin:

confidence

aspirations

Men

Power to

Power within

ALLPOWER OVER

= BAD

STRATEGIES FOR MENto change

gender inequalitySTRATEGIES FOR WOMEN

to change gender inequality

GENDER MAINSTREAMING

GENDER MAINSTREAMING

POWER WITH

STRATEGIC GENDER

FRAMEWORK

STRATEGIC GENDER

FRAMEWORK

EQUALITYof OPPORTUNITYnon-negotiable

EMPOWERMENT to make realisable and informed choices

EQUITY of OUTCOMES‘rich tapestry of life’

Personal difference and choice

Enabling environment to eliminate ‘power over’ requires not only removing discrimination but mainstreaming:- Intra-household

- Non-market - Informal processes- Participatory structures

Also attention to crosscutting inequalitiesbetween women:poverty, ethnicity, marital status, age, education, health status etc

‘Smart subsidy’Participatory empowerment process and targeted support for women. Involving men also in this change.

+

Elements of a financially sustainable strategy

• Mainstreaming women’s language conceptually and in actuality

• ‘Walking the talk’: organizational gender policy• Participatory market research• Gender mainstreaming in non-financial services• Building on group activities for action learning• Macro-level focus and advocacy

Organisational Mainstreaming

• Vision and institutional culture• Equal opportunity policies for staff• Recruitment, training and promotion

policies• Information systems• Using forms of communication accessible

to women

Possible gender indicatorsCLIENT LEVEL• (all programmes) percentage of women clients who know and

understand the terms of the MFI’s financial services• percentage of women clients with enterprise loans who are

themselves working in the economic activity• (mixed-sex programmes) percentage of women accessing larger

loans and higher-level services; percentage of women in leadership positions in group-based programmes;

STAFF LEVEL• percentage of senior staff who are women, and gender equality of

pay;• existence of a written gender policy produced through a

participatory process with staff; staff aware of its contents and mechanisms for implementation.

QUESTIONS SO FAR?

Designing Financial Products

• loans• leasing arrangements• savings services• pensions• insurance• remittance transfer services

Some types of loan and leasing products

• Longer-term credit or leasing arrangements to build assets

• Credit for investment in a variety of viable, profitable activities.

• Consumption loans to avoid resorting to moneylenders in slack and ‘hungry’ seasons.

• Households need loans to pay for children’s education and to meet social obligations

Some innovations in loan products

• Client-focused loans• Loans for assets registered in women’s names• Loans for adolescent girls and changing the

dowry system• Loans for services benefiting women• Loan targeting of vulnerable and very poor

women• Consumption loans for men as well as women

Designing savings and pension products

• Longer term savings for asset purchase• Short-term liquid savings for quick access• Pensions

Some innovations in savings products

• Personal savings accounts • Pension Savings• Flexible individual savings• Children’s savings card• Graduation from grants to savings linked

to training and employment creation

Demand driven product development

• Participatory market research• Financial literacy• Combining the two linked to application for

financial products

QUESTIONS SO FAR?

Increasing empowerment

• Mainstreaming empowerment in core services

• ‘Credit-plus’ non-financial services• Participatory approaches• Macro-level strategies

Mainstreaming empowerment in core services

• Application process for products• Basic savings-and-credit training and

group mobilization• Extension services and business advice

sections

‘Credit-plus’ non-financial services

• Microfinance and literacy• Microfinance and health- and HIV/aids-

awareness• Women’s rights training and legal aid

Participation for empowerment

• Collective action on domestic violence• Internal learning system• Gender action learning system (GALS)• Supporting women’s property rights• Promoting women’s political participation

Ways of meeting costs

• Mutual learning and information exchange within groups

• Implement a cross-subsidy• Encourage loans for service provision by

microfinance clients or larger private firms• Inter-organizational collaboration between

microfinance programmes and specialist providers

• Operational integration of financial and non-financial services

Macro-level

• Promoting gender mainstreaming and an empowerment focus in all actors in the sector

• Consumer protection and regulatory frameworks

• Value chain finance and linkages with economic development policies

• Gender advocacy eg land and property rights, gender-based violence and women’s political participation.

Promoting an enabling environment: some possible roles for funding agencies

• Facilitate and support collaboration among the various types of rural finance providers

• Promote and support monitoring and research on gender equality and empowerment

• Promote learning and capacity-building networks• Ensure that gender experts and women’s organizations are involved in

designing financial regulations and consumer protection legislation• Appraise the national training programmes• Mainstream gender in consumer protection• Promote intersectoral linkages among the financial, rural development

planning and other agencies working for gender equity

CONCLUSIONS

RISKS• Microfinance may

disempower and benefits cannot be assumed

• Continuing marginalisation and resistance to gender mainstreaming within rural microfinance organisations and many funding agencies

• Need for sustained capacity-building and innovation

Slide 34

OPPORTUNITIES• Micro-finance programmes can

make a significant contribution to women’s empowerment and gender equality

• Gender equality and women’s empowerment are central to achievement of all other development goals.

• Current innovations in SPM, technology, participatory methods and macro-level linkages

How can micro-finance groups build on and strengthen women’s own strategies and collective action?

How can micro-finance support men’s role in change?

What sorts of financial products and and non-financial servicesare needed for empowerment?

What are the implications for organisations themselves?

What are the implications for macro-level policy advocacy?

Questions

QUESTIONS?

• Genfinance website: www.genfinance.info

• Oxfam Novib’s WEMAN website www.wemanglobal.org

• Rural Finance (search on gender) www.ruralfinance.org

• Microfinance Gateway www.microfinancegateway.org/

Useful websites