Providing Enterprise Development and Financial Services to Women: A Decade of Bank Experience in Asia, Volumes 23-236During the past decade, raising the productivity of women became an integral element of the World Bank?s overall strategy for reducing poverty and achieving sustainable growth. The number and scope of Bank projects to provide women with enterprise development, financial services, and social intermediation services grew accordingly. This paper reviews 27 such projects in East and South Asia and provides a succinct assessment of successes, failures, and surprises. The authors identify patterns and trends in the design of projects, examine the reasons for such trends, and draw lessons about how such projects can be more effective in delivering financial services to women in these countries. Many of these women are an increasingly vital source--or the sole source--of income for their families, but they are often overlooked in the implementation of small development projects. The authors draw eight key lessons for future Bank projects to provide enterprise development and financial services. They recommend that such projects be considered one element of a coordinated country-specific strategy for poverty alleviation. |
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ADBP Africa Agricultural Credit Project agriculture projects Andhra Pradesh Annex approach ASIA REGION EDFS/W Asian EDFS/W projects Bangladesh Bank's BRI/KUPEDES China costs Cottage Enterprise Finance delivery mechanisms development and financial East Asia East Asian projects economic EDFS projects EDFS/W activities EDFS/W components EDFS/W Project Portfolio effective enterprise development services Enterprise Finance Project enterprise training extensionists faced by women financial institutions financial services financial sustainability gender Grameen Bank group formation growth-oriented Guangdong implementing institution included India Indonesia infrastructure institutional sustainability Jiangxi loans marketing mature microenterprises Metro Manila minimalist Naqvi needs NGOs outreach P.O. Box Papua New Guinea Philippines Cottage Enterprise population production programs project design projects offering reach women clients REGION EDFS/W PROJECT Rural sample savings mobilization small scale industries social intermediation services solidarity groups South and East South Asia Sri Lanka Subregion subsistence enterprises technical assistance training for women Vanuatu WEMTOP World Bank
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Page 2 - Social intermediation, as it is used in this review, refers primarily to efforts aimed at strengthening socially and economically marginal clients by encouraging them to organize into self-help groups.