Beneath the Surface - Microcredit and Women's Empowerment
By: Abdul Bayes

Excerpt: 
Microcredit should help poor women in three ways:
    First, by providing independent sources of income outside home, microcredit tends to reduce economic 
      dependency of the women on husbands and thus help enhance autonomy.
    Second, the same independent sources of income together with their exposure to new sets of ideas, values 
      and social support should make these women more assertive of their rights.
    And finally, micro credit programmes - by providing control over material resources - should raise women's 
      prestige and status in the eyes of husbands and thereby promote intersperse consultation.

Excerpt:
The present report surveys current experience and highlights the strengths and weakness of the microcredit approach, including the administrative difficulties and limited linkages with other services for the poor. The report also contains suggestions for strengthening operations, and makes a particular plea for ensuring that microcredit projects are established in a broader context of support to the small enterprise sector. Responsibilities of donor countries in this regard are emphazised.

Excerpt:
This paper is about women and their transition out of poverty. It explores the process by which
women use enterprise development as a vehicle to make changes in their lives, enhancing their
independence and building a livelihood. It offers community economic-development practitioners
some practical learning and concepts that may assist in strengthening their economicdevelopment
programs for women. It offers funders and policymakers a new asset-based
framework to assist in the important work of supporting women to achieve self-sufficiency
through enterprise development.

Excerpt:
"How do enterprise development programs intervene with low income women to build sustainable
livelihoods?" This paper captures the experience of the nine WEDC-funded women's
economic development projects across Canada. It documents their work to support the transition
of low-income women towards greater independence and the creation of livelihoods.