Gender and rural microfinance: Reaching and empowering ... - IFAD
Gender and rural microfinance: Reaching and empowering ... - IFAD
Gender and rural microfinance: Reaching and empowering ... - IFAD
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Returns to capital<br />
• Access question: are returns to savings sufficient to enable women to<br />
persuade other household members that it is worthwhile diverting their<br />
own or other household income to savings?<br />
• Empowerment question: are returns to savings sufficient to enable<br />
women to build up assets over time <strong>and</strong> comparable to returns available<br />
from other savings channels?<br />
<strong>Gender</strong> questions<br />
for men<br />
• Do savings facilities for men exist to encourage them to save <strong>and</strong><br />
provide for their families (for instance, for girls’ education or marriage)?<br />
Do staff promote these products to reinforce men’s sense of<br />
responsibility for household well-being or to support women family<br />
members in their own economic activities?<br />
Insurance<br />
Application<br />
process<br />
• Access questions: are insurance products advertised <strong>and</strong> promoted in<br />
places accessible to women? Are they in languages understood by<br />
the women?<br />
• Empowerment questions: do the questions asked in the application<br />
process challenge or reinforce existing roles within the household?<br />
Are women being asked to pay for insurance from which men are most<br />
likely to benefit (e.g. their own life insurance)?<br />
• Questions for men: do questions asked in application procedures for<br />
insurance for men challenge or reinforce existing roles within the<br />
household? Do they encourage male responsibility for decreasing<br />
women’s vulnerability to shocks faced by the household, e.g. by taking<br />
out life insurance for themselves?<br />
Coverage <strong>and</strong><br />
conditions<br />
• Access question: are insurance conditions sufficiently inclusive to be<br />
relevant to women’s needs? For example, how do they treat women’s<br />
assets, health problems <strong>and</strong> reproductive complications, divorce<br />
<strong>and</strong> ab<strong>and</strong>onment?<br />
• Empowerment questions: in what ways does insurance decrease<br />
women's vulnerability? Does it increase their powers of negotiation<br />
within the household?<br />
• Question for men: does insurance for men give their wives financial<br />
security in the event of their illness or death?<br />
Premiums <strong>and</strong><br />
payments<br />
Claims<br />
• Access questions: are the premiums within women’s payment capacity<br />
(in terms of amount <strong>and</strong> regularity)? Are payment procedures accessible<br />
to women in terms of location <strong>and</strong> comprehensibility?<br />
• Access question: are claims procedures accessible to women in terms<br />
of location <strong>and</strong> comprehensibility?<br />
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