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The design of micro-finance
products, for example. interest rates,
repayment schedules, application
procedures, loan size and purpose
and savings conditions are
often seen as a technical banking
issue decided from above by
programme staff. The main consideration
is financial self-sustainability
or more rarely poverty targeting.
Women have generally been relegated to group-based
programmes with small loans
and savings.
Very little attention has been
given to gender equity or empowerment
questions.
However, evidence indicates
that women's ability to use
micro-finance to increase
incomes and control these incomes
are also affected by design
of micro-finance products:
types of collateral requirements,
modes of disbursal, loan size
and timing, types of savings
product and so on.
Products for empowerment
It is clear that even individual
women need a range of different
types of savings and loan product
for different purposes, including
but by no means only:
- repayment
schedules and interest rates
to maximise contribution
to increasing incomes
- registration
of assets used as collateral
or purchased with loans
in women's names or in joint
names and applicable in both
loans for women and men
- incorporating
clear strategies for women's
graduation to larger loans
- loans
for new activities, health,
education, housing
- range of savings
facilities which include
confidential higher interest
deposits with more restricted
access to enable them to
build assets protected from
demands of other family members
- loans to reinforce
and strengthen male responsibilities
for household well-being,
including that of their wives
and daughters e.g. loans
for daughter's education
and for
a daughter to take with her on marriage.
Participatory Market Research
Most mature organisations
are now looking at providing
a range of different microfinance
products tailored to the needs
of particular client groups.
However market research needs
to go beyond identifying
potentially profitable products.
If micro-finance is to contribute to sustainable
livelihoods and empowerment
goals it must identify those
products which most adequately
meet the needs of women clients
and which help them challenge
gender inequalities in the
household, market and community.
Some programmes like Kabarole Research and Resource Centre (KRC) in
Uganda and Learning for Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) in Sudan are using Participatory
Action Learning Systems (PALS)
to help women and men make
an informed and ongoing contribution
to product innovation and development.
These include Tools for individual
savings and loan planning and
management, group level poverty
inclusion analysis and adaptations
of other market research tools.
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