I can’t decide how I feel about microfinance after Thursday’s class. Before, everything I had read about microfinance made me feel that it was a really great method for development and empowering women on a grassroots level. It seemed like such a simple and logical approach that I was always amazed at how well it seemed to work, but never really challenged those perceptions.
The movie we watched about women’s microfinance in Bangladesh only solidified my opinion. Then Dr. Pelkey was kind enough to come in and talk to us about some of his own experiences with microfinance projects. Based on his knowledge, microfinance is actually successful in only a select few cases, and in most situations, the moneylenders get rich off the money they loan the women while the women just become indebted and fearful of their moneylenders (usually men). At first I really did not appreciate my perceptions of microfinance being trumped on, considering that the women may be better off than they were originally, and are at least being challenged to empower themselves. It does raise the question, though, if women are told that this is guaranteed to empower them and then it only makes them feel more endangered and helpless, maybe it will discourage those women from ever stepping out of their traditional gender roles again.
I think it may be possible that microfinance is a good thing when it is combined with the correct oversight and leadership training programs, and especially when the moneylenders are not looking to charge exorbitant interest or get rich off of the loans of poor people. It would be interesting to see how these projects are different from ones in which women have the group among themselves and all contribute their own money to a savings that they can each loan from as needed.
No comments:
Post a Comment