microfinance
Study finds microfinance can help, even if goals aren’t met | Around the O
Erin Beck
Editor’s Note: Erin Beck is a member of the CLLAS Executive Board.
Source: Study finds microfinance can help, even if goals aren’t met | Around the O
August 7, 2017—UO political scientist Erin Beck thinks development organizations aren’t asking the right questions if they want to truly understand what the money they spend trying to help lift poor people out of poverty around the globe is actually doing.
Her new book, How Development Projects Persist, outlines her takeaways from researching nongovernmental microfinance organizations for poor rural women in Guatemala and challenges standard ways of measuring the success of development projects. She argues that organizations rely too much on numbers and often overlook critical human interactions, which are not as easily measured but are central to understanding how development projects function and persist.
“We can’t just think about what the projects are doing for people but should also examine what people do for projects,” Beck said. “We need to look at how policies get transformed on the ground.” › Continue reading
Grantee Presentation—Alejandra García: The Impact of Microfinance on Women’s Empowerment in Bolivia
| May 17, 2012 | ||
| 4:00 pm | to | 5:00 pm |
Alejandra Garcia helps facilitate a focus group session with microfinance clients in Sucre, Bolivia.
Hendricks Hall, 1st floor
Frazier Hearth Room
1408 University St.
CLLAS Grantee Presentation: Alejandra García Diaz Villamil (PPPM)
The Impact of Microfinance on Women’s Empowerment in Bolivia
How have communal banks in Bolivia impacted the empowerment of women entrepreneurs, particularly in terms of decision-making, leadership, participation in community associations, and self-esteem?
The focus of my research is to bring to light the efforts and struggles of indigenous Bolivian women in peri-urban areas. I provide testimony of some of the inequalities along gender lines in Bolivia. In particular, I focus on women’s struggle to become more independent by being entrepreneurs and clients of microfinance while still being able to be good wives and mothers. The resulting balancing act proves difficult when faced with wage disparity, discrimination, and lack of participation in business opportunities. Nevertheless, women find their calling when they begin a business using a micro loan and are part of a support group. Not only are they able to contribute to the household income, but their self-esteem drastically improves, and they feel greater equality to their male counterparts.
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