Economic Empowerment of Women through Inclusive Finance

Zusatztext

The expansion of microfinance, by enhancing inclusive finance, promised to address the issue of poverty alleviation, promoting womens empowerment and sustainable development. The high value attached to such interventions has been marked by the award of a Nobel Peace Prize to Grameen Bank and its founder Dr. Muhammed Yunus. Billions of dollars continue to be invested to upscale outreach. Unfortunately, such interventions, often focused only on minimalist microcredit and implemented without addressing specific gender issues, risk perpetuating the status quo. Where the newly gained improved womens bargaining power pose a threat to the established societal norm vis a vis what is valued, allowed, and expected from a woman/man, and a girl/boy, such interventions even worsen existing injustice, enhancing intimate partner violence, etc, In many cases, what has started as a purely social concern has given rise to emergence of profit motivated institutions, which became the new money lenders at the bottom of the pyramid. This paper undertakes a very comprehensive analysis of existing practices in various contexts, and offers some practical recommendations.

Autorenportrait

Getaneh Gobezie was trained as an economist (M.Sc, 1999) and has a professional experience of two decades in micro and small enterprise, microfinance, gender, economic empowerment etc. He has worked on evaluation, research, impact assessment, training and consultancy. He is a network member of Women World Banking etc.

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