THEME: Women's groups can become a powerful tool for empowerment.
In the case of IFAD-supported activities in all countries in South Asia, forming informal and homogeneous groups have proven a good way of reaching and empowering poorer rural women. Women tend to prefer to meet on their own rather than with men, for fear that if the men are included in the groups, they will impose their opinions and priorities on the women. In Cinnanallabali in India, for instance, the village men asked to join the women's groups when they realized that there were potential financial benefits. They were refused. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), with their experience in working at the grass-roots level, are often effective IFAD partners in working with and supporting women's groups. One example of successful women-only groups have been savings groups, which have proven to be an effective way of cushioning the poor against crises, as well as for meeting their needs for operating capital and urgent consumption. Such groups can protect the poor from the high interest rates of moneylenders. The P4K savings groups in Indonesia are an example. Savings groups also encourage women to assume a decision-making role on financial matters, which is new to most women, and empowering. For instance, women in such groups must decide how to use the limited saved funds, and who among the members should be given the next loan. Self-help groups of women can actually go beyond savings and credit activities to undertake joint planning and action, including at the community level. Women's access to cash and their direct dealings with banks and bank staff increase their self-reliance and feelings of self-worth. An example of this type of experience was found in the IFAD-supported Maharashtra Rural Credit project in India and the Production Credit for Rural Women in Nepal. But the experience under several IFAD-supported projects in South Asia has shown that the empowerment of women does not result only from the financial aspects of group operations. Empowerment also comes from:
Women under the IFAD-supported Tamil Nadu Women's Development Project discovered that their membership in the group increased their self-esteem and helped them deal with intra-family injustices and inequities, and even with domestic violence. The groups also became a problem-solving forum where the women could discuss and act on common problems. In the village of Garade in Maharashtra (Western India), women's groups played an important role in banning the local sale and costly consumption of alcohol and chewing tobacco among village men and youths. Before the ban, large portions of the meager family income, which should have gone towards meeting food needs, were instead being spent on alcohol and tobacco. When legal measures did not work, the women's groups organized several morchas, or sit-ins, at the local liquor store to get it to close down. The groups also encouraged the village to ban the sale of gutka, or chewing tobacco, which was sold in front of the local primary and secondary schools. They also borrowed money to buy and burn the village's entire stock of chewing tobacco. Thus women's participation in the groups increased their feelings of social responsibility and gave them the initiative and the courage to take a leadership role on community issues. The group is more than a targeting mechanism in development projects in South Asia. Where women are weak and marginalized, the group provides them with collective strength. The benefits of the group are not limited to economic empowerment, but often also include social and psychological benefits for women members. Such benefits come from the functioning of the group itself and not only as a secondary effect of economic empowerment. The initial actions that groups undertake may not have major development significance, but the groups themselves do serve as a training ground for members, preparing the way for even greater future action. Where women's groups can join together to form hierarchical structures, this adds to their power, particularly in terms of their social status, social leverage and policy influence. Adapted from: IFAD/PI. 1999. Rural Poverty Assessment: Asia and the Pacific
Region (Draft for Discussion). Rome, September. |
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IFAD
views helping poorer women organize as a means for the women's empowerment.
For this reason, groups are a main entry point for most IFAD projects
targeting to women. Project-supported groups can be newly established
ones or existing groups that are strengthened and given new functions
under the project. Usually the groups are informal groupings of
women who know and trust one another and who share common interests
and goals. Mixed groups of men and women have been found to work
better in some countries (as in Uganda and Kenya) as long as the
men do not dominate discussion and decision-making.