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The IFAD co-financed Credit Project of the Northeast Region of Paraguay was implemented from 1993-1999. This project was a member of a network of IFAD projects which received special support from PROCASUR (a regional capacity building initiative). The Paraguay project addressed what were considered to be the two main constraints of the small farmer in the Northeast - credit and technical assistance. A 2000? IFAD study of gender issues found a wide difference in the Paraguay case in rural women’s participation in technical assistance services, as compared to credit.
Poorer rural women in this part of Paraguay play an active role in agricultural production. Traditionally, they grow food crops for household consumption purposes, are involved in agricultural processing (particularly milk-based products, jams and sweets), and look after small livestock, especially poultry.
The technical assistance cum training component of the project had four sub-components, one of which was ‘promotion of rural women.’ The plan was to organize some 240 groups and to have 3 190 women receive support for micro enterprises or small rural businesses. The focus of the ‘women’s’ component was first, in organizing groups of women, which formed the focal point for training and sharing of ideas and problems. The expectation was, that once strengthened, these groups would be integrated into the formal organizations, whereupon women would become eligible to receive credit.
Due to the special focus on women, the project was able to field a large number of extension staff, who were able to provide services to a considerable number of women farmers. Most extensionists focused on agriculture, and only a small number, on social and domestic aspects, which was good. The study found that these field staff had developed:
- women’s interests in new crops and products, such as tomato and broiler chickens;
- a strong interest among women in participating in income-generating activities, which could benefit their families;
- interest in integrating into the formal organizations;
- a generally greater awareness of their productive role and its importance
to society, which in turn had increased women’s self-esteem.
However, whereas by the year 1998 (one year before the project closed) fully 7 946 women in the project area had benefited from technical assistance - more than double what had been expected – only 1 702 women – a little more than half of what had been anticipated - had received loans under the programme. In all, women accounted for only 13.9% of loan recipients during these five years.
There appear to have been a number of reasons for the low participation of women in the credit component, including:
- Many of the credit intermediaries involved in the project were particular hesitant about lending to women, considering it too risky because of the women’s limited experience with credit and their lack of guarantees – in spite of the special conditions established by the project to circumvent this constraint. The study notes that the greatest resistance occurred at the upper management level.
- Most of the project’s technical focus in the case of women was on traditional food production, which had low profitability and limited markets. These types of loan projects were unattractive from a lender perspective.
- The process of promoting, first, women’s groups and then integrating these into the larger organization (which would allow them to access credit), was not as efficient as it could have been.
- Many women themselves were afraid of borrowing, in part because of their lack of experience in doing so.
As in this project, it is usual for rural women to be slower
in accessing credit than men are, both because of constraints on the credit
supply side and on their own.
Based on: IFAD, Programa de Fortalecimiento en los Aspectos de Genero Para los Proyectos Fida del Cono Sur e Integrantes del PROCASUR: Estudio Diagnostico – El Enfoque de Genero en la Ejecucion de los Proyectos FIDA Integrantes de PROCASUR: Rome: IFAD.
