Questioning virtuous spirals: micro-finance and women's empowerment in Africa

The Micro-credit Summit in Washington in February 1997 presented an extremely attractive vision of increasing numbers of expanding, of financially self-sustainable micro-finance programs reaching large numbers of women borrowers and making a significant contribution to global poverty alleviation. Funding for micro-finance programs targeting large numbers of women has recently been significantly increased under initiatives by CGAP and its member agencies. Those promoting micro-finance for women see it as initiating a "virtuous upward spiral" of economic, social and political empowerment. However, parallel to this enthusiasm some researchers based on research in South Asia, particularly Bangladesh, have questioned the degree to which micro-finance services in fact benefit women. Some have argued that for some women in some contexts programs may even be disempowering, reducing women to unpaid debt collectors for development agencies and increasing tensions within the family (Goetz and Sen Gupta, 1996).