See also Case Studies on Micro-finance page
MAYOUX, L. (1989).
African Women in Cooperatives: Towards a Realistic Agenda.
Addis Ababa, IFAA.
Ethiopia/ Africa/
cooperatives/ gender/ empowerment
Cooperatives have been widely advocated as a preferred
means of development for women by national governments,
international agencies, NGOs and feminists. They are
seen as important for the wider mobilisation conscientisation
of women, and increasing women's income through the
elimination of intermediaries. However, as the papers
presented here clearly demonstrate, the cooperative
movement in many countries have not included women
on equal terms with men, despite the stated aims of
quality and democracy of the cooperative movement.
Much cooperative development aimed specifically women
has been in the form of isolated projects which have
not been integrated into mainstream economic development.
There have been a number of undoubted success stories,
and even more cases were also cooperatives have eventually
failed they have succeeded in raising women's consciousness
and improved their ability to participate in decision-making
in the wider society. However it must be admitted that
large numbers had been unsuccessful, or at least have
had serious problems.
The conference on which these volumes based brought
together activists in the cooperative movement and
academics from both Africa and the UK in an attempt
to clarify some of the issues and arrive at some concrete
policy proposals the government, international agencies,
non-governmental organisations and the wider women's
movement.
MAYOUX, L. (1993).
“Integration Is Not Enough: Gender Inequality and Empowerment in Nicaraguan Agricultural Cooperatives.” Development Policy Review 11(1): 67-90.
Nicaragua/ Latin America/
cooperatives/ gender/ empowerment/
Despite a very mixed record, cooperatives or cooperative-style
organisations have continued to be seen as an important
means whereby the poor can increase their productivity
and incomes, and achieve more political strength. Cooperatives
have often been promoted as the ideal type of project
for women, combining possibilities for both income
earning and consciousness-raising. More recently, in
addition to women only cooperative projects there have
been attempts to integrate women into wider cooperative
movements, particularly in rural areas. Such integration
has often been seen as a more radical solution, avoiding
economic and political marginalisation. At the same
time, it has often been supported by those opposed
to the formation of separate 'feminist ' women's organisations.
This article discusses the experience of women in agricultural
cooperatives in Nicaragua under the Sandinistas. It
is based on research at the end of 1988, supplemented
by information from the number of other sources. After
the 1979 Sandinista revolution, considerable encouragement
was given both to women's issues and co-operative development.
Concurrently, there was widespread grass-roots mobilisation
of women in support of the Revolution. In agricultural
cooperatives a range of measures, including legislation,
were taken to increase women's participation. Gender
issues were ignored in wider co-operative policy, however,
and the emphasis was on mobilising women for production
rather than around broader 'feminists ' issues.
The Nicaraguan case suggests that women and men have
different needs and priorities in cooperative development
because of the division of labour and power structures
in both the family and the wider society along gender
lines. It is doubtful whether a focus on 'integrate'
women into production within the established organisational
framework could ever succeed in reaching all eligible
women. Even for many of those who did become involved,
the degree to which their integration constituted 'empowerment
' is a moot point. It is argued that co-operative structures
and priorities need to change if they are to truly
address women's needs and provide the necessary framework
for their 'empowerment '. In particular, there is a
need to address reproduction issues as an integral
part of the organisation of cooperative work, and also
to build structures to deal with inequalities within
as well as between families. Importantly, these issues
need to be taken into account in the formulation of
overall cooperative policy, and not simply in the context
of separate policies for women.
MAYOUX, L. (1998).
“Participatory Programme Learning for Women's Empowerment in Micro-Finance Programmes: Negotiating Complexity, Conflict and Change.” IDS
Bulletin 29(4): 39-50.
micro-finance/ empowerment/impact assessment/ PLA/
This paper proposes a participatory approach for integrating
women’s empowerment concerns into ongoing programme
learning, seeing this itself as a contribution to empowerment.
The article:
· discusses “tricky issues” faced by policy- relevant research on women’s
empowerment
· outlines principles,
methods and elements of a participatory programme
learning approach
· lays out specific
analytical, methodological and ethical questions to
be asked
· proposes a framework
for analysing women’s empowerment and interrelationships
between different aspects of empowerment and policy
· looks at continuing
methodological and institutional challenges needing
to be addressed, including “assessment fatigue”
The paper describes steps to be taken in initiating,
developing and implementing a participatory approach,
and states their necessity for long-term sustainability
of micro-finance programmes.
JOHNSON, H. and L. MAYOUX (1998).
Investigation as Empowerment: Using Participatory Methods.
Finding out Fast: Investigative Skills for Policy and Development. A. Thomas, J. Chataway and M. Wuyts. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, Sage, Open University: 147-172.
PLA/ empowerment/ research methods/ participatory
methods/
Participatory methods of investigation and policy
development are increasingly promoted by development
agencies of varying perspectives and influence, including
World Bank and NGOs. In many Northern aid agencies,
participatory approaches are a required component
for funding development programmes. Given the explicit
link often made between participatory investigation,
participatory development and empowerment is important
to know whether and how participatory methods can
have an empowering effect, as well as understanding
their limitations and pitfalls.
This paper suggests some areas of investigation where
participatory methods of investigation can be potentially
empowering, and discusses some of the limitations
of trying to use participatory approaches as an empowering
process. The first section examines the concept of
empowerment and its presumed relationship to participatory
approaches to investigation and action. The second
section reviews some of the empowering experiences
of using participatory methods while section three
looks at some of the pitfalls. The final section summarises
some of the critical issues which need to be addressed
in using participatory approaches.
MAYOUX, L. (1999).
“ Questioning Virtuous Spirals: Micro-Finance and Women's Empowerment in Africa.” Journal of International Development 11: 957-984.
Africa/
micro-finance/ empowerment/
The promotion of micro-finance programmes for women
has become increasingly controversial. There has been
no systematic cross-cultural or inter-organisational
comparison of relative impacts of different models
or strategies. As a preliminary to such a study this
paper attempts to piece together existing and largely
unpublished evidence on 15 programmes in Africa, based
on secondary source material and the author's own exploratory
research.
The first section of the paper clarifies some of the
assumptions about 'virtuous spirals' of empowerment
underlying different paradigms of micro-finance provision.
The following sections then examine the degree to which
the evidence supports or challenges these assumptions
and the questions which need to be asked by gender
analysis. The evidence indicates that for some women
in some contexts, even very poor women, micro-finance
programmes can indeed contribute to empowerment. However
for many women impact on both economic and social empowerment
appears to be marginal and some women may be positively
disempowered.
These diverse outcomes indicate extremely complex interrelationships
between women's own strategies for use of micro-finance
to further their perceived interests and contextual
opportunities and constraints and programme policies.
Although existing data is inadequate to reach firm
conclusions about details of policy, it does indicate
the need to explicitly incorporate strategies for empowerment
rather than just increasing women's access to micro-finance.
MAYOUX, L. (2000)
Micro-Finance and the Empowerment of Women - a Review of the Key Issues
Social Finance Unit, ILO Geneva
http://ilo.org/public/english/employment/finance/papers/mayoux.htm
Zimbabwe/ Cameroon/
gender/ micro-finance/ empowerment
Considerable advances were made in the 1990s in the
design of NGO-managed programmes and poverty-targeted
banks to increase women's access to small loans and
savings facilities. Literature prepared for the Micro-credit
Summit Campaign presented an extremely attractive vision
of increasing numbers of expanding micro-finance programmes
which not only give many women access to micro-finance
services, but also initiate a 'virtuous upward spiral'
of empowerment. This optimism about the implicit empowerment
potential of credit and savings pervaded most donor
statements on micro-finance. donors and NGOs tended
to expand their micro-finance activities generally
rather than support more explicitly empowerment-focussed
interventions for women. On the other hand some researchers
questioned how far microfinance benefits women. Some
argued that micro-finance programmes divert the attention
of women from other more effective strategies for empowerment,
and the attention and the resources of donors from
alternative, and possibly more effective means of alleviating
poverty .
There are four basic views on the link between Micro-finance,
and women's empowerment:
· those who stress
the positive evidence and are essentially optimistic
about the possibility of sustainable micro-finance
programmes world-wide empowering women;
· those who recognize
the limitations to empowerment, but explains those
with poor programme design;
· those who recognize
the limitations of micro-finance for promoting empowerment,
but see it as a key ingredient as important in themselves
within a strategy to alleviate poverty; empowerment
in this view needs to be addressed by other means;
· those who see micro-finance
programmes as a waste of resources.
This paper clarifies these issues within the context
of the debate about gender mainstreaming. The paper
is based on research by the author and secondary source
material. An Appendix gives summary details of the15
case studies which form the main basis of the arguments.
The paper concludes that women's empowerment needs
to be an integral part of policies. Empowerment cannot
be assumed to be an automatic outcome of micro-finance
programmes, whether designed for financial sustainability
or poverty targeting. More research and innovation
on conditions of micro-finance delivery is needed.
The paper finds that cost-effective ways of integrating
micro-finance with other empowerment interventions,
including group development and complementary services
are still lacking. Unless empowerment is an integral
part of the planning process, the rapid expansion of
micro-finance is unlikely to make more than a limited
contribution to empowerment.
MAYOUX, L. (2000).
“From Access to Empowerment: Widening the Debate on Gender, and Sustainable Micro-Finance,.” Austrian Journal of Development Studies XV1(3): 247-274.
micro-finance/ empowerment
This paper argues that although micro-finance programmes
do have a significant potential contribution to women's
empowerment, this is not an automatic consequence of
women's access to savings and credit alone. Empowerment
aims need to be explicitly prioritised and innovative
thinking is needed on how they can be achieved. It
discusses evidence on positive and negative interlinkages
between women's empowerment and policies currently
advocated and/or implemented to increase financial
sustainability. It focuses particularly on the author's
preliminary research and secondary sources on 10 programmes:
Community Development Centre (CODEC) in Bangladesh,
Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)
in India, Zambuko Trust and Self-Help Development Fund
(SHDF) in Zimbabwe, Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF)
in South Africa, CARE-PULSE and CARE-PROSPECT in Zambia
and Cameroon Gatsby Trust (CGT) and its partner organizations
Mbonweh and CIPCRE in Cameroon. It also draws on secondary
sources and discussions with staff from other programmes
involved in a series of regional workshops facilitated
by the author and staff in donor agencies .
Section 1 of the paper gives an overview of the development
and underlying assumptions of the financial self-sustainability
paradigm in relation to gender impact. Section 2 gives
an overview of evidence from Africa and South Asia
which challenges many of the assumptions of beneficial
impacts of women's access to micro-finance per se,
reinforcing the concerns of earlier studies in Bangladesh.
Section 3 discusses some possible cost-effective ways
forward for making micro-finance programmes more empowering
for women based on this evidence and some recent innovative
initiatives. Section 4 argues that there is a need
to move away from blueprints and to develop a range
of types of programme which address the needs of particular
women, particular contexts and particular strengths
of the organizations concerned. This will entail a
more participatory approach to programme management
and organizational learning in order to ensure contextual
relevance and prioritisation of the needs of members.
It will also require linking grassroots groups with
other movements for change in gender relations at the
micro-and macro-levels. Supporting a more participatory
empowerment approach will also involve a significant
shift in current donor priorities and procedures.
MAYOUX, L. (2001).
“Tackling the Down Side : Social Capital, Women's Empowerment and Micro-Finance, in Cameroon.” Development and Change 32(3): 435-464.
Cameroon/
micro-finance/ empowerment/social capital/ gender/
ROSCAs/
Micro-finance programmes are currently promoted by
multilateral and bilateral donor agencies as a means
of inserting poverty alleviation and empowerment objectives
into the dominant development objective of market-led
growth. Current policy in many donor agencies, particularly
members of CGAP, and much of the official literature
from the Micro-credit Summit is dominated by the 'financial
self-sustainability paradigm'. Within this paradigm
women's participation in groups is promoted as a key
means of increasing financial sustainability and poverty
targeting through drawing on 'social capital', while
at the same time being assumed to empower women through
automatically strengthening this social capital. However,
the primary rationale of financial sustainability means
there is little support for actively developing 'social
capital', either in terms of collective economic activity
to increase incomes or organization to enable women
to challenge gender subordination.
This optimism about the intrinsic simultaneous benefits
of social capital to both microfinance programmes and
women themselves ignores questions raised about networks
and collective action in current critical literature
on social capital as well as earlier critiques of participatory
development. Recent research has questioned the degree
to which reliance on social capital necessarily enhances
financial sustainability and poverty targeting. Importantly,
there are gender dimensions to the debate which need
further clarification. Recent research in Bangladesh
and elsewhere has questioned any automatic benefits
of micro-finance for women and also pointed to the
potentially negative impact of the ways in which current
policies for financial sustainability are being implemented.
It is clear that the interrelationships between social
capital, empowerment and sustainability are extremely
complex. As a preliminary to more comprehensive comparative
discussion, this article examines the experience of
seven micro-finance programmes in Cameroon. These
programmes all place considerable reliance on client
networks and voluntary input for loan disbursal and
recovery, but follow different models of micro-finance
and have different approaches to gender policy. The
evidence indicates that microfinance programmes which
build social capital can indeed make a significant
contribution to women's empowerment. However, serious
questions need to be asked about what sorts of norms,
networks and associations are to be promoted, in whose
interests, and how they can best contribute to empowerment,
particularly for the poorest women.
MAYOUX, L. (2001)
Women's Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: Implications for Impact Assessment
http://www.enterprise-impact.org.uk/approaches/tsp/povelimempowerwomen.shtml
empowerment/impact assessment/ gender/
Women's empowerment means more than simply marginal
increases in incomes but requires a transformation
of power relations. This paper argues that, following
DFID's definition of empowerment in its Target Strategy
Paper 'Poverty Reduction and the Empowerment of Women'
this means that enterprise development must take into
account not only income levels, but also:
· Aim to empower
women. This requires going beyond income generation
and provision of low-paid and part-time work. In many
cases this merely serves to reinforce existing inequalities.
It is essential to address both micro level and macro
level inequalities in order to enable women to exercise
choice and fulfil their potential.
· Ensure equality
of opportunity through mainstreaming women’s
empowerment and gender/ equality in all enterprise
policy. It is essential to women's human rights/ that
they have equal access to all enterprise interventions
and equal treatment in all enterprise policy, not just
female-targeted micro-enterprise programmes.
· Ensure equity of
outcomes through rethinking mainstream enterprise development
to ensure empowerment and redress gender/ inequalities.
This requires new thinking about the relationship between
productive and reproductive roles, priority stakeholders
in enterprise development and how power relations can
be addressed at all levels.
The paper discusses the implications of the for impact
assessment, methodology: for indicators. stakeholder
analysis and the assessment process itself.
MAYOUX, L. (2001)
Micro-Finance for Women's Empowerment: A Participatory Learning, Management and Action Approach
http://www.alternative-finance.org.uk/cgi-bin/summary.pl?id=185&language=E
micro-finance/ empowerment/
Micro-finance programmes targeting women became a major
plank of donor poverty alleviation and gender strategies
in the 1990s. Funding is set to further increase under
current initiatives by CGAP and member donor agencies.
This expansion is dominated by Guidelines for Best
Practice informed by the 'financial self-sustainability
paradigm' of micro-finance, aimed at developing programmes
which will ultimately be independent of donor funds.
Literature prepared for the Micro-credit Summit in
Washington in February 1997, many donor statements
on credit and NGO funding proposals present an extremely
attractive vision of increasing numbers of expanding,
financially self-sustainable micro-finance programmes
reaching and empowering large numbers of poor women
borrowers.
This paper argues that there is a need for a serious
rethink of many currently accepted 'tenets of Best
Practice' in the light of existing evidence of gender
impact. The paper is based on secondary sources and
the author's preliminary research on programmes in
Asia, Africa and Latin America. The paper advocates
a new 'participatory approach ' where aims and strategies
for women's empowerment are mainstreamed rather than
marginal add-ons to programmes designed for financial
sustainability or poverty alleviation. The approach
proposed builds on ideas and methodologies currently
being developed within all three paradigms, but particularly
the feminist empowerment paradigm. Ensuring flexibility
to women's own aspirations and strategies, contextual
and organisational constraints will require participatory
processes for programme learning, management and action.
The approach goes beyond using women's time and resources
for programme efficiency or community development to
building on women's participation for fundamental change
in gender relations. Importantly this will also require
the participation of men in the process of change.
In many organisations it will require changes in organisational
culture and structure. Finally developing the approach
will require a change in donor priorities. However,
unless these changes are made, microfinance will fail
to realise its full potential as a useful part of a
holistic agenda for empowerment and poverty eradication.
MAYOUX, L. (2002)
Women's Empowerment or Feminisation of Debt? Towards a New Agenda in Microfinance
One World Action London
http://www.oneworldaction.org/genderandmicrofinance.html
Africa/
micro-finance/ empowerment/
Microfinance programmes targeting women have been promoted
as a key strategy for simultaneously addressing the
poverty reduction and women's empowerment. There are
now many microfinance programmes in Africa targeting
women. However an increasing body of evidence suggests
that the contribution of current microfinance programmes
to women's empowerment is generally less than assumed.
Assumptions that any 'trickle up' from financially
sustainable microfinance in itself will be sufficient
to bridge the gap left in 'trickle-down' from macro
economic policies are misplaced. To the contrary there
are serious dangers that microfinance governed solely
by financial sustainability concerns will further disadvantage
the very poor who are excluded from such programmes
without any alternative safety nets. Female targeting
without adequate support networks and empowerment strategies
may merely shift all the burden of household debt and
household subsistence onto women. This has adverse
implications not only for women themselves, but also
for children and the men's role in the household and
society.
The aim of the conference on which this report was
based was to explore elements of a new agenda for microfinance
which would make the development goals of poverty elimination
and women's empowerment central to program vision,
design, implementation and evaluation.
Part 1 of the report argues that poverty elimination
cannot be achieved without a commitment to women's
empowerment, as stated in the official commitments
and international agreements on gender signed by both
African governments and aid agencies. It discusses
evidence of the considerable potential of microfinance
in Africa. But it also questions assumptions of any
automatic beneficial impact of microfinance per se on
either poverty reduction or women's empowerment.
Part 2 questions the appropriateness of many aspects
of currently accepted 'best practice 'in the light
of this evidence. It discusses alternative strategies
which could have a greater contribution to poverty
reduction and women's empowerment based on experience
of programmes participating in the conference.
Part 3 summarises the conclusions and discusses ways
of mainstreaming this new agenda within microfinance.
It also points to issues for advocacy and lobbying
to create an enabling environment for women to use
microfinance for poverty reduction and empowerment.
The Appendix gives a Checklist for Action.
MAYOUX, L. (2002).
Women's Empowerment and Participation in Micro-Finance: Evidence, Issues and Ways Ahead.
Sustainable Learning for Women's Empowerment: Ways Forward in Micro-Finance. L. Mayoux. New Delhi, Samkriti.
http://www.oneworldaction.org/genderandmicrofinance.html#africa
India/
micro-finance/ empowerment/ participation/
In India poverty-focused bank lending programmes has
existed since the 1950s. Credit facilities for women
were pioneered by SEWA founded in 1974, followed by
other organizations, including Working Women's Forum.
Microfinance services were part of a broader strategy
including unionisation, cooperative formation and mobilizing
around gender issues like dowry as part of the wider
women's movement. Following the widely publicised success
of these organisations, and particularly an expansion
of formal sector programmes for women and expansion
in funding, many other programmes were started by existing
NGOs. These organizations were also instrumental in
bringing about significant changes in the formal financial
sector in India, including the introduction of a range
of loan programes targeting women like the DWCRA programme
introduced in 1985, and quotas for women under the
IRDP programme. The Indian government has formulated
several schemes to support savings and credit programmes
initiated by NGOs, through NABARD, RMK and SIDBI .
This paper discusses the degree to which women have
benefitted from these programmes. Evidence indicates
although micro-finance programmes do potentially have
a significant contribution to women's empowerment,
this is not an automatic consequence of women's access
to savings and credit or group formation per se. In
many cases benefits may be marginal and women may even
be disempowered.
This paper argues that there is a need for a new 'participatory
approach ' where aims and strategies for women's empowerment
are mainstreamed rather than marginal add-ons to programmes
designed for financial sustainability or poverty alleviation.
Some critical elements of an empowerment strategy can
to some extent be incorporated into a range of different
types of programme. However ensuring flexibility to
women's own aspirations and strategies, contextual
and organisational constraints will require participatory
processes for programme learning, management and action.
The approach goes beyond using women's time and resources
for programme efficiency or community development to
building on women's participation for fundamental change
in gender relations. Importantly this will also require
the participation of men in the process of change.
In many organisations it will require changes in organisational
culture and structure. Finally developing the approach
will require a change in donor priorities. However,
unless these changes are made, microfinance will fail
to realise its full potential as a useful part of a
holistic agenda for empowerment and poverty eradication.
MAYOUX, L. (2003)
Empowering Enquiry: A New Approach to Investigation
http:///www.enterprise-impact.org.uk/informationresources/toolbox/empoweringenquiry.shtml
empowerment/impact assessment/
Impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation take-up
people’s time and resources. They also take-up the scarce resources of development programmes and funding agencies which could be spent on development implementation. The demands and expectations currently being placed on impact assessment mean that there is now a need to move on from one-off external ‘policing’ exercises
to participatory multi-stakeholder assessments as part
of an ongoing process of sustainable strategic learning involving
grassroots program participants/ beneficiaries, program
staff at all levels, local research institutes.
This paper discusses ways in which the investigation
process itself can have a significant contribution
towards empowerment, and hence also towards poverty
reduction, within the broader framework of strategic
learning. It proposes a new approach to investigation
processes and methodologies, called ‘Empowering Enquiry ‘,
which would underly investigation facilitated by external
researchers and/or practitioners. The approach would
not significantly increase time or costs of the investigation
process. It requires rather:
· a change in attitude and power relationships throughout
the investigation process.
· a rethink of the basics of investigation design:
selecting indicators, sampling, questioning procedures
and analysis and dissemination.
· a reversal of the sequencing of different methodologies,
with the main focus being on participatory methods
supplemented by rigorous qualitative investigation.
Quantitative survey methods would then be very carefully
focused on specific practical issues arising where
quantification of narrow indicators is needed. The
use of quantitative methods would be made more useful
and reliable through prior identification of credible
impact chains and relevant indicators and sampling
methods by the participatory and qualitative research.
MAYOUX, L. (2003)
From Marginalisation to Empowerment: Towards a New Approach in Small Enterprise Development
http://www.intercooperation.ch/sed/2003/wks-sed-and-empowerment/presentations/mayoux.pdf
enterprise development/ empowerment/ pro-poor development/
enabling environments
In the late 1990s, and particularly in the current
century, there has been increasing international agreement
on the importance of ' pro-poor growth '. There has
also been increasing agreement that any coherent strategy
for pro-poor growth and wealth creation must include
small enterprise development. However small enterprise
development is not necessarily pro-poor. Small enterprises
are very diverse and small entrepreneurs include not
only extremely poor people but also skilled consultants
like the author, with very different opportunities
and constraints. Power relations are integral to the
ways in which economic negotiations are conducted at
all levels. Class, gender and ethnic inequalities in
power and resources are key determinants of which people
are able to take advantage of economic supply and demand
factors, and of the relative balance between market
supply and demand itself. They therefore determine
where values are allocated at different levels of production
and market chains. Ultimately most markets within which
small-scale entrepreneurs operate are structured by
international inequalities in bargaining power and
resources in International ‘Free’ Trade
Agreements which continue protection for large-scale
Northern interests.
Empowerment must therefore be an integral part of any
strategy for pro-poor growth. Small enterprise development
which does not include strategies to address power
inequalities is unlikely to be successful in benefiting
significant numbers of poor people. Most will continue
to be consigned to insecure, low income subsistence
enterprises. The very poor are likely to be even further
disadvantaged through increasingly unequal competition
in the markets on which they depend for survival. This
is not only a disaster for people themselves. It also
slows local and national economic development, not
only of the small-scale agricultural and enterprise
sectors, but the medium and large enterprises which
depend on them for inputs, production and local distribution.
Small enterprise development which does not address
empowerment concerns will also fail to comply with
the cross-cutting commitments of development agencies.
However, although the term ‘empowerment’ is frequently found in official documents and programme promotional material, the implications of an empowerment approach to small enterprise development has rarely been thought through. This paper attempts to provide a basis for initiating a debate. Part 1 provides an overview of debates about small enterprise development and empowerment. Part 2 then proposes a strategic framework for an empowerment approach small enterprise development and the implications for different areas of SED intervention. The paper focuses particularly on the ‘wealth creation needs’ of
very poor entrepreneurs, particularly very poor women,
who are being excluded from or increasingly marginalised
by current small enterprise development policy.
MAYOUX, L., Ed. (2003).
Sustainable Learning for Women's Empowerment: Ways Forward in Micro-Finance,.
New Delhi, Samskriti.
India/
micro-finance/ empowerment/ ILS/ training/ micro-enterprise/
PALS/ silk/ gender training/
An essential component of improving the contribution
of micro-finance to women's empowerment are systems
and structures for learning involving women themselves,
programmes and donors/. This must go beyond the current
enthusiasm for impact assessment, even participatory
impact assessment. It must be based on the priorities
and needs of women, linking these into programme level
learning and also to donor policy formation.
This book brings together papers by activists and academics
contributed to an inception workshop titled "Participatory Learning For Women's Empowerment: Towards An Integrated Methodology" organized by PRADAN on September 12 & 13,
2001. The book proposes a framework for sustainable
learning which will in itself be empowering, and discusses
the continuing challenges which will inevitably have
to be faced. It is argued that there is a need for
an integrated and strategic participatory methodology
to strengthen self-help groups as an organizational
structure. This methodology will enable women to:
· identify and develop
their own individual and collective empowerment objectives
· identify their
strategic learning needs in relation to these objectives
in particular
· ways of increasing
income levels and livelihood sustainability from enterprise
and other income-earning activities. This includes
identification of a diverse range of economic activities,
improving production, analyzing and addressing problems
in markets
· strategies for
overcoming gender/ constraints and maximizing opportunities
at the individual, household, community and macro-levels,
including access to and control over productive resources
and markets and freedom from violence.
· document in visual
and simple written form the group and individual learning
so that it can contribute to a cumulative process of
empowerment within the groups, for individual women
and within NGOs as a whole.
· translate learning
into collaborative action (with both women and men)
at different points in the production and marketing
chain and in overcoming gender/ and poverty constraints.
This includes identification of individual and collective
actions, areas for working with men and strategic points
of external support from NGOs.
CONTENTS
PREFACE Nelleke Van der Vleuten, ICCO
PART 1: WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT AND Micro-finance,
Sustainable learning for women's empowerment: the aims
of this book Linda Mayoux
Women's empowerment, participation and Micro-finance,:
issues, evidence and ways forward, Linda Mayoux
Participatory Learning Systems for Self Help Groups
in PRADAN, D Narendranath
PART 2: PARTICIPATORY LEARNING: SYSTEMS, STRUCTURES
AND PRACTICAL TOOLS
The Internal Learning System: impact assessment, versus
Empowerment? Helzi Noponen
PLA, and gender/ impact assessment, Ranjani Krishna
Murthy
Daring to Dream, Jui Gupta
Learning about Women's Access and Control, Dhrubaa
Mukhopadhyay
Participate and Evaluate: participatory group evaluation,
Sukanta Sarkar
We shall let our fears go and bring in strength: women's
networking in Gujarat, Sejal Dand
PART 3: LEARNING FOR EMPOWERMENT: INNOVATIONS AND CHALLENGES
Gender/ training: a review of experience, Ranjani
Krishna Murthy
'Only Wicked Women go to market!' issues in participatory
enterprise training, Frances Sinha
Product to Market assessment: the experience of Udyogini,
Vanita Viswanath
You Are the Owner of Your Own Destiny! Unleashing the
Achievement Syndrome in Self-help Groups, Rita Sengupta
Literacy as empowerment: the experience of REFLECT
Madhusudhan, S Seetha Lakshmi, Sagari Ramdas, Rajamma
and Linda Mayoux
PART 4: SUSTAINABLE LEARNING FOR WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT:
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Sustainable Learning or Women's Empowerment: A Framework,
Linda Mayoux
Gender Action Checklist, Linda Mayoux
MAYOUX, L. (2004)
Anandi: Participatory Review December 2003
ANANDI Baroda
http://www.anandiindia.org
PALS/ gender/ empowerment/ basic needs/
This document is the outcome of a participatory review
process conducted with ANANDI staff, mandal members
and partner NGOs and funded by Concern Worldwide, India.
The document summarises the author's conclusions about
the effectiveness of ANANDI's innovative approach to
women's empowerment and to give suggestions for further
innovation in relation to ANANDI’s goals. Much
of the time during the Review was spent conducting
a series of participatory exercises with mandal members
in Saurashtra and Devgadh Baria. The participatory
exercises proved very effective in rapidly obtaining
both complex and sensitive information. Topics covered
were: general dimensions of women's empowerment, poverty
targeting of ANANDI assistance, gender/ violence, food
security and organizational development.
It was clear, even from the brief time spent with the
women in the field, that ANANDI's activities have had
both a significant and a sustainable contribution to
changing gender/ inequalities and building women's
own capacities for collective action. It is clear also
that ANANDI's model and experience has many important
implications for empowerment interventions elsewhere.
It clearly indicates the developmental effectiveness
and sustainability of a model focusing on women’s empowerment as the basis not only for addressing women’s
own individual and collective needs, but also those
of their families and communities. Some of the implications
for wider debates are discussed in the final section.
MAYOUX, L. and ANANDI (2005).
“Participatory Action Learning in Practice: Experience of Anandi, India.” Journal of International Development March.
http:///www.enterprise-impact.org.uk/informationresources/toolbox/PALinpractice.shtml (original version)
PALS/ empowerment/ poverty/ food security/ violence/
impact assessment/
This paper discusses preliminary experiences of ANANDI
in developing a new methodology: Participatory Action
Learning System (PALS). Building on both new and established
participatory tools and processes, the aim is to develop
a participatory, integrated and sustainable information
systems for local level empowerment, grassroots-based
advocacy and programme-level decision-making. Individuals
and groups are supported to fulfil their own information
needs. The individual and group level processes are
scaled-up and given additional strength through networking
events where information is exchanged and consolidated
for lobbying and advocacy. Although the methodology
is still very much in the development phase, the quantitative
and qualitative information has been rich and probably
more reliable than surveys conducted under the same
conditions. The PALS training process has already led
to changes in peoples’ lives, group functioning
and staff/participant relationships. It has facilitated
discussion of complex and sensitive issues like empowerment,
domestic violence, and wider institutional impacts
and strategies.