Gender Equality National Report Hungary - European-microfinance ...

3.7.3 Equality in access to micro-finance Score 4.7
In all the micro-finance programs (national and local micro-credit programs as well as the
Micro-credit Plus program) run by the enterprise promotion foundations in the capital city and
the counties (i.e. LEAs) as micro-finance institutions, which make up the Hungarian Microfinance
Network female and male entrepreneurs may apply for loans with equal chances.
On the basis of data from the national micro-credit program less than 30% of enterprises
receiving micro-credit are owned by women, though 35% of micro-enterprise owners are
women as shown in surveys in the previous chapters:
Chart No. 12:
Number of Clients Total No. Proportion
Men Women Men Women
2007 144 59 203 0,7093 0,2907
2006 733 294 1027 0,7137 0,2863
2005 733 298 1031 0.71096 0.28904
2004 352 187 539 0.653061 0.346939
2003 689 272 961 0.716961 0.283039
2002 1684 670 2354 0.715378 0.284622
2001 1937 795 2732 0.709004 0.290996
Total: 5395 2222 7617 0.708284* 0.291716*
* mean value
To improve this - and at the urge of EMN - in 2007 some members of the Network
experimentally started their new micro-credit product specifically launched for women. The
experimental program was prepared by the experts of the LEA in Fejer County; the product
description and the operational rules were approved by the consortium of the LEAs in the
framework of the regulation of the local micro-credit programs. The Consortium made the
program available for all the LEAs but it could be announced only by the LEAs with quite
significant Local Micro-credit Funds.
In the creation of this loan product the Consortium again began from the fact that microlending
is an effective tool to enhance the development and investments of individual
segments of enterprises. As seen in the previous chapters, a lower proportion of women start
businesses, and they undertake developments more carefully. The experimental program
aimed to examine whether it was possible to ease up this careful behaviour of women and to
urge them to undertake developments - and also to take more risks- with the use of positive
discrimination.
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