Microfinance challenges: empowerment or disempowerment of the poor?
Microfinance is often presented, not only as an efficient tool to fight against poverty, but also as a means of promoting the empowerment of the most marginalized sections of the population, especially women. However, reality has shown that the causal relation between microfinance and empowerment is neither linear, nor unequivocal and that it is even less systematic. This book is an attempt to nourish the debate, on the one hand, by combining theoretical reflections and case studies, and on th...
La relation de causalité entre microfinance et empowerment n’est ni linéaire, ni univoque et encore moins systématique. Cet ouvrage propose d’alimenter le débat, d’une part en combinant réflexions théoriques et études de cas, d’autre part en confrontant praticiens et chercheurs de diverses disciplines. Une première partie propose de définir le concept d’empowerment. Une seconde partie insiste sur le rôle central de l’environnement. Le lien entre microfinance et empowerment est d’autant plus su...
Éditeur : Institut Français de Pondichéry
Lieu d’édition : Pondichéry
Publication sur OpenEdition Books : 14 avril 2020
ISBN numérique : 979-10-365-4985-4
DOI : 10.4000/books.ifp.4653
Collection : Collection Sciences Sociales | 10
Année d’édition : 2005
ISBN (Édition imprimée) : 978-81-8470-136-4
Nombre de pages : 385
Isabelle Guérin et Jane Palier
AcknowledgementsIsabelle Guérin et Jane Palier
General IntroductionPart I - Questions as to definition: what is understood by empowerment?
Meera Sundararajan
1. ‘Engendering’ microfinanceM. Thanuja
2. Relevance of microfinance and empowerment in tribal areas: a case study of the Konda ReddisSreejata Banerjee et S.J.S. Swamidoss
3. Structural issues in empowerment under microfinanceWayan Suadnya, Shankariah Chamala, Muktasam Abdurahman et al.
4. Empowerment and microfinance: an analysis of theoretical concepts and practices – Reflections from a microfinance project in IndonesiaSunita Rabindranathan
5. Historical analysis of empowerment and its present understanding in the context of microfinanceS. Mohanakumar et Suja Susan George
6. Micro enterprises of self-help groups and State policies under a neo-liberal regime: Evidences from a village in KeralaJoy Deshmukh-Ranadive
7. Can microfinance empower women?Part II - Microfinance in its environment
Christine Bonnin
9. Women’s survival strategies and experiences with support services as home-based micro-entrepreneurs in Metro ManilaPart III - Assessing microfinance
Cyril Fouillet et Jane Palier
IntroductionAssessing the impact of microfinance in terms of empowerment: issues and challenges
Helzi Noponen
13. Microfinance, rural livelihoods and women’s empowerment – a participatory learning system to assess and enhance impactMeenal Patole et Frances Sinha
14. Microfinance and women’s empowerment: research approach and findings from an impact assessment of MFIs in IndiaBinitha V. Thampi
15. Self-help groups and the empowerment of Women – a study on Community Development Society in Alleppey, KeralaUsha Oommen et A. Meenakshisundararajan
16. Microfinance and self-help groups – the way ahead (with special reference to Kanyakumari district)P.A. Lakshmi Prasanna
18. Microfinance and empowerment – concepts and tools: some preliminary insights from the SHG model in Andhra PradeshPrakash Louis
19. SHGs and their place and role in civil societyK.R. Lakshmy Devi
22. Microcredit programmes, poverty alleviation and empowerment of women – some empirical evidence from KeralaIsabelle Guérin et Jane Palier
By way of a conclusion: microfinance, empowerment and solidarity-based economyMicrofinance is often presented, not only as an efficient tool to fight against poverty, but also as a means of promoting the empowerment of the most marginalized sections of the population, especially women. However, reality has shown that the causal relation between microfinance and empowerment is neither linear, nor unequivocal and that it is even less systematic. This book is an attempt to nourish the debate, on the one hand, by combining theoretical reflections and case studies, and on the other hand, by engaging practitioners and researchers from various backgrounds (mainly economists, sociologists and anthropologists). First of all, we consider the question of definitions. Even if everyone agrees that the concept of ‘empowerment' refers to notions of choice, of power and of change, the diversity of definitions suggested here confirms that under no circumstances does a universal conception of it exist. The second part insists on the central role of the environment. The link between microfinance and empowerment is all the more subtle, and sometimes unforeseeable, as microfinance projects take place within an economic, socio-cultural and political context that is itself complex, evolutionary and which partially conditions the results obtained.
Microfinance projects - as any development projects - should therefore be understood and analyzed as endogenous processes. Finally, a third part relates to the crucial question of evaluation. Here still, the diversity of the results is striking: certain experiments are very positive while elsewhere the results are very mixed and sometimes even worrying. One does not speak any more of empowerment, but of “disempowerment” or even “overempowerment”. This heterogeneity of results is due as much to the diversity of the projects, their methods of action, the target population, and the context of intervention as to the methodologies of evaluation. The conclusion leads us to go beyond a certain number of contradictions evoked throughout the book while proposing to think of empowerment using the French concept of “solidarity-based economy”. This concept of solidarity-based economy, which is theoretical as well as normative, is a framework for analysis and action, which, according to us, must make it possible to guard against the risks of failures and perverse effects mentioned throughout the book.
La relation de causalité entre microfinance et empowerment n’est ni linéaire, ni univoque et encore moins systématique. Cet ouvrage propose d’alimenter le débat, d’une part en combinant réflexions théoriques et études de cas, d’autre part en confrontant praticiens et chercheurs de diverses disciplines. Une première partie propose de définir le concept d’empowerment. Une seconde partie insiste sur le rôle central de l’environnement. Le lien entre microfinance et empowerment est d’autant plus subtil, parfois imprévisible, que les projets de microfinance prennent place dans un contexte économique, social, culturel et politique qui est lui-même complexe, évolutif et qui conditionne partiellement les résultats obtenus. Une troisième partie porte sur la question cruciale de l’évaluation.
Economist, and head of the programme “Microfinance and Socially Sustainable Development” at the Department of Social Sciences, French Institute of Pondicherry. She is also researcher at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Laboratoire Population-Environnement-Développement (IRD-Université de Provence). Before working in India, she initially worked on banking and financial exclusion process in West Africa and Europe.
Economist, PhD student at the University Lumière Lyon 2 (France). She is also associated with the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Laboratoire Population-Environnement-Développement (IRD-Université de Provence) and with the French Institute of Pondicherry, where she spent one year conducting her field work.
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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