The Role of Microfinance for Empowerment of Poor Women in Yemen

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to identify the challenges facing the empowerment of women in Yemen. This paper is mainly based on the secondary data collected from the records of the Yemeni Government programmes viz., Social Fund for Development, Microfinance books, websites, official reports and other sources related to the research subject. The mentioned study covers the period from 1997 to 2013 and the area for the study is Yemen. The result of the study reported that there are multiple factors affecting the empowerment of women in Yemen through microfinance such as customs and traditions, high interest rate, financial literacy, wrong religious perceptions, demanded collaterals. However, despite the difficulties and challenges facing women empowerment in Yemen, it is believed that women who are connected to microfinance programs have been positively affected with their households in various aspects as many studies revealed that.