1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. Contents Why is gender mainstreaming important in rural microfinance?Why is gender mainstreaming important in rural microfinance? Institutional dimensions of mainstreaming gender equality and empowermentInstitutional dimensions Designing financial products: from access to empowermentDesigning financial products: Non-financial services, participation and macro- level strategies: increasing empowermentNon-financial services, participation and macro- level strategies Promoting an enabling environment: issues for funding agenciesPromoting an enabling environment:

5. Why is gender mainstreaming important? Women are at least half the rural population Poverty reduction Economic growth Financial sustainability of microfinance providers

6. Gender and micro-finance: evolution of debates Self- Employed Womens Association (SEWA) and setting up of the Womens World Banking network. 1985 Nairobi womens conference and lobbying by womens 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 womens economic empowerment 1980s access to poverty-targeted credit 1990s female targeting for financial sustainability 2000 onwards split paradigms Gender equality and womens empowerment marginalised in both financial sustainability and poverty targeting debates.

7. Rural Finance and empowerment: Potential virtuous spirals WOMENS ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT INCREASED INCOME WOMENS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY CONTROL OVER INCOME AND RESOURCES ECONOMIC GROWTH ACCESS TO MARKETS ENTERPRISE GROWTH WOMENS DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE SAVINGS AND CREDIT REPAYMENT HOUSEHOLD WELL-BEING Nutrition Health Literacy Happiness HOUSEHOLD INCOME UNDER WOMENS CONTROL WOMENS WELL-BEING CHILDRENS WELL-BEING POVERTY REDUCTION MENS WELL-BEING WOMENS HUMAN RIGHTS WOMENS 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)

8. Questioning complacency SAVINGS AND CREDIT WOMENS DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT REPAYMENT but!!! ??Women may give the loan to men ??Men may take loan

9. Questioning womens economic empowerment WOMENS DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE SAVINGS AND CREDIT REPAYMENT WOMENS ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT INCREASED INCOME WOMENS 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 womens income May go for consumption ??Women may work from home with marketing by men

10. Questioning womens well-being ??Men may withdraw their contribution to the household ??Women may forego own consumption WOMENS DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE SAVINGS AND CREDIT REPAYMENT HOUSEHOLD WELL-BEING Nutrition Health Literacy Happiness HOUSEHOLD INCOME UNDER WOMENS CONTROL WOMENS WELL-BEING CHILDRENS WELL-BEING POVERTY REDUCTION MENS WELL-BEING ??Womens decisions may replicate gender inequality ??Girls may suffer

11. Questioning womens social and political empowerment WOMENS DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE SAVINGS AND CREDIT REPAYMENT WOMENS HUMAN RIGHTS WOMENS 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 replicate and reinforce existing roles ??Debt may decrease confidence ??May divert attention from wider change

12. Microfinance and disempowerment: potential vicious circles ALL ASSUMPTIONS MUST BE QUESTIONED WOMENS ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT INCREASED INCOME WOMENS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY CONTROL OVER INCOME AND RESOURCES ECONOMIC GROWTH ACCESS TO MARKETS ENTERPRISE GROWTH WOMENS DECISION ABOUT SAVINGS AND CREDIT USE SAVINGS AND CREDIT REPAYMENT HOUSEHOLD WELL-BEING Nutrition Health Literacy Happiness HOUSEHOLD INCOME UNDER WOMENS CONTROL WOMENS WELL-BEING CHILDRENS WELL-BEING POVERTY REDUCTION MENS WELL-BEING WOMENS HUMAN RIGHTS WOMENS 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) ??

13. QUESTIONS SO FAR?

14. WHAT IS WOMENS EMPOWERME NT? Women: Power to skills resources Women Power within: confidence aspirations Men Power to Power within ALL POWER OVER = BAD STRATEGIES FOR MEN to change gender inequality STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN to change gender inequality GENDER MAINSTREAMING POWER WITH

15. STRATEGIC GENDER FRAMEWORK EQUALITY of OPPORTUNITY non-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 inequalities between 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. +

16. Elements of a financially sustainable strategy Mainstreaming womens 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

17. 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

18. Possible gender indicators CLIENT LEVEL (all programmes) percentage of women clients who know and understand the terms of the MFIs 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.

19. QUESTIONS SO FAR?

20. Designing Financial Products loans leasing arrangements savings services pensions insurance remittance transfer services

21. 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 childrens education and to meet social obligations

22. Some innovations in loan products Client-focused loans Loans for assets registered in womens 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

23. Designing savings and pension products Longer term savings for asset purchase Short-term liquid savings for quick access Pensions

24. Some innovations in savings products Personal savings accounts Pension Savings Flexible individual savings Childrens savings card Graduation from grants to savings linked to training and employment creation

25. Demand driven product development Participatory market research Financial literacy Combining the two linked to application for financial products

26. QUESTIONS SO FAR?

27. Increasing empowerment Mainstreaming empowerment in core services Credit-plus non-financial services Participatory approaches Macro-level strategies

28. Mainstreaming empowerment in core services Application process for products Basic savings-and-credit training and group mobilization Extension services and business advice sections

29. Credit-plus non-financial services Microfinance and literacy Microfinance and health- and HIV/aids- awareness Womens rights training and legal aid

30. Participation for empowerment Collective action on domestic violence Internal learning system Gender action learning system (GALS) Supporting womens property rights Promoting womens political participation

31. 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

32. 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 womens political participation.

33. 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 womens 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

34. 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 womens empowerment and gender equality Gender equality and womens 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 womens own strategies and collective action? How can micro-finance support mens role in change? What sorts of financial products and and non-financial services are needed for empowerment? What are the implications for organisations themselves? What are the implications for macro-level policy advocacy? Questions

35. QUESTIONS? Genfinance website: www.genfinance.info www.genfinance.info Oxfam Novibs WEMAN website www.wemanglobal.orgwww.wemanglobal.org Rural Finance (search on gender) www.ruralfinance.orgwww.ruralfinance.org Microfinance Gateway www.microfinancegateway.org/ www.microfinancegateway.org/ Useful websites