Social Impact Assessment of Microfinance Programmes - weman

One of the most significant findings from our survey for SAFWCO, relates to the
substantial positive difference in different types and categories of Women’s
Empowerment. Table 6.5 shows that in every category, the difference between Borrowers
and the other categories, is significant. None of the other MFIs in our sample had such a
result.
Table – 6.5
SAFWCO – Women Empowerment
Variables Category Mean Standard
Deviation
t-value
Significance
Level
Economic Empowerment
Score out of 14 Active Borrowers 11.4302 2.06107 6.120 .000
New and Non-Borrowers 8.5647 3.81553
Income Empowerment
Score out of 5 Active Borrowers 4.2093 .81336 3.066 .003
New and Non-Borrowers 3.6706 1.40905
Assets Empowerment
Score out of 8 Active Borrowers 3.4186 1.25055 2.699 .008
New and Non-Borrowers 2.8235 1.61228
Empowerment Related with
Education and Health
Active Borrowers
Score out of 10
7.0814 2.09882 4.485 .000
New and Non-Borrowers 5.5059 2.48147
Social Empowerment
Score out of 10 Active Borrowers 5.2907 1.33607 2.211 .028
New and Non-Borrowers 4.7529 1.81204
Note: There are 86 and 85 respondents in each category respectively. t-value greater than 1.6 indicates
the mean difference between two categories is statistically significant. The negative t indicates that
average value of category 2 is greater than the average value of category 1.
In terms of the perceptions of clients and non-clients, Tables A. 6.2. 24-29, show a
number of features. The longer Borrowers stay with the programme, the larger proportion
feel that they are better-off and that the Quality of their Lives has improved; most say
they eat better and they feel that this improvement in their Quality of Life can be
sustained. Most Non-Borrowers are aware of SAFWCO’s microfinance programme, and
most Non-Borrowers also feel that there is an overall improvement of the Quality of Life
on account of taking the loan – Table 6.2.29. New (Pipeline) Borrowers in particular,
have a very positive perception about the consequences of the programme, and so do
those Non-Borrowers who are located in the same area where the programme functions.
6.3 Regression Analysis
There are weaknesses in using bivariate analysis, as we do above, since it does not allow
us to examine the nature of the impact, and hence, we use multivariate regression
analysis, which allows us to look at impact controlling for other related variables. These
two sets of analysis also explain why we often get contradictory findings.
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