Targeting women in micro-finance schemes: Objectives and outcomes

Abstract

This paper examines the gender component of the Urban Poverty Alleviation Project (UPAP), initiated by the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) in Rawalpindi and Islamabad in 1996. UPAP gives loans to self-constituted groups of women who would be considered uncreditworthy by normal banking standards. Beyond the feasibility of project objectives with respect to the socioeconomic conditions of the context in which a programme is to be implemented, the aim of the paper is to highlight the mismatch between the product design and its conception and implementation by the staff of the given organisation. The examination of the impact on the status of the borrowers, within and outside the home, reveals that although loans are given to women, as per product design, the manner in which the programme is implemented and the vision that guides its future direction tend to miss the mark insofar as exploiting its potential or striking at the essence of poverty are concerned. Concentrating on the poorer members of a poor household and ameliorating their lot consequently loses primacy. So long as the UPAP thrust is not in agreement with the product design, sensitisation to the issue of women's empowerment also does not become a mandatory component of the programme. The opportunity for generating awareness of and sensitivity towards the plight of the most disadvantaged section of the population, and making efforts to overcome that disadvantage, is thereby lost. The potential for the need to improve the skills of women, in order to improve their welfare, also remains underutilised.