Features of Credit Programmes
that Enhance Women's Participation

  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Baseline Data: Use sex-disaggregated data
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Enables programmes to reach a greater number of women and to track the differential performance of women clients in credit programmes.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Implementing Agency: Provide technical assistance to the implementing agency in the area of increasing women's participation.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Many technically competent implementing agencies have little or no experience in increasing women's level of participation.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Advertising: Promote the project through women's organizations and maternal/child health clinics, and by word of mouth through informal channels.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Many community organizations which disseminate information about sources of credit and application procedures are male organizations.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Guarantee/Collateral: Use the business's track record and potential for increased producion; use a low minimum savings requirement; establish an internal guarantee fund, funded by borrowers' commissions and the lending institutions; use a solidarity group credit component; use the incentive of future access to credit as a guarantee; use the borrower's reputation in the community.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Women often lack title to houses, land, buinesses, or other property.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Training: If training is required befor eloans, schedule sessions at times and locations convenient to women; establish referral services to vocational education programmes in the community
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Women are more often deficient in accounting and managerial skills and they have limited time available for training.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Technical Assistance: Offer technical assistance in the loan application process; assist borrowers to form their own associations to increase their leverage to institutions and resources such as raw materials.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Women more often require assistance in filling out applications, due to high illiteracy rates; they predominate in low-paying activities.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Transaction Costs for Borrowers: Make application forms shorter; administer loan programme in a decentralized setting, near women's businesses or homes, possibly through mobile vans or neighbourhood offices.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Transaction time is too cumbersome for women borrowers, who must take time away from their businesses and household activities to carry out transactions.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Loan Approval and Disbursement Process: Allow programme staff to aprove loans as well as make recommendations; make the local bank responsible for loan disbursement, releasing staff time.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    The nature of women's businesses demands working capital on a frequent basis with rapid disbursement.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Type of Loans: Make loans available for working capital as well as fixed capital; through incentives in loan terms, encourage women to move into new, more productive activities.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Women predominate in commerce and services, rather than manufacturing, and therefore need working capital.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Interest Rates: Set at or above market rates to avoid decapitalizing loan fund.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Often, women's only option is much higher interest rates to money lenders.
  • Project Feature and Recommended Approach:
    Repayment Terms: Keep loan terms short and flexible.
  • Rationale for Recommendation:
    Default rates are often lower if small borrowers are given the option of repaying the loan in frequent small payments or in fewer large payments.
  • Source:
    Berger, Marguerite (1989), "Giving Women Credit: The Strengths and Limitations of Credit as a Tool for Alleviating Poverty" World Development, Volume 17, Number 7, pp. 1017-1032.
    • Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org
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