Credit with Education Impact Review No. 1: Women's Empowerment

Credit with Education Impact Review No. 1: Women's Empowerment

This paper aims to summarize Freedom from Hunger’s efforts and challenges encountered in assessing the impact of Credit with Education on empowerment of women by drawing from studies carried out in Ghana and Bolivia and to some extent Burkina Faso and Thailand. In order to provide a context for the study results, key literature in the fields of microfinance and women’s empowerment is summarized. Empowerment in its broadest sense refers to an individual’s or group’s increased “power.” In a development context, it refers both to “internal” change within an individual’s sense of self and autonomy, and “external” change in social status and basic power relationships in society. By offering poor households access to formal or semi-formal financial services, microfinance has the potential to empower its clients in a variety of ways. Credit with Education Impact Review No. 1: Women’s Empowerment, by Barbara MkNelly and Mona McCord. October 2001. (Copies available from Freedom from Hunger at no charge.)