(Volume 4) - Mental Health Disorders - Vula - University of Cape Town

More locally, a micro-finance intervention was tested in the Limpopo Provinceof South Africa; the Intervention with Micro-finance for AIDS andGender Equity (IMAGE) combined a micro-finance intervention for poorwomen with a participatory curriculum of gender and HIV education using acommunity development approach (Pronyk et al, 2006). A randomised,controlled trial compared outcomes two years after the initiation of theprogramme and found statistically significant improvements in householdassets (Adjusted RR: 1.15 95% CI: 1.05-1.28), communication withhousehold members about sexuality (Adjusted RR: 1.58 95%CI: 1.21-2.07)and a reduction of intimate partner violence (Adjusted RR 0.45 95%CI: 0.23-0.91) in women receiving credit compared to controls. No significantdifferences were found in terms of perceived social capital among this cohort.One of the main limitations of the study is that — owing to the nature of theintervention — it is not possible to know whether reductions in partnerviolence were as a result of the gender-equity training or the micro-financeprovision. FED-UP, discussed above, is another example of how microfinanceand social capital can be utilised to reduce poverty (housingdeprivation, in this instance).Opponents to the provision of micro-finance alert us to possible pitfalls of thisapproach. In his critique of micro-finance solutions for development in Africa,Buckley (1997) argues that providing credit to those who cannot access creditthrough conventional channels disrupts self-selection such that those withinsufficient business acumen and credit-management will inevitably be therecipients of these loans. By implication, this would make micro-creditinterventions a poor investment and could also potentially create more“stress” for recipients, who would then have to repay these loans withinterest without having generated sufficient income from them. While this lineof thinking ignores the structural barriers to accessing credit, Buckley’sconcerns highlight the need to have a selection process and to provide skillstraining so that loan recipients are in a position to utilise the credit to theirbenefit, as confirmed by the findings of the BRAC study.Conclusion‣ Outcomes of community development and micro-financeinterventions include improvements in mental health, childmortality, food security, financial autonomy, human capital anddomestic violence.‣ Caution must be taken to avoid possible negative effects of microcreditthrough use of selection criteria and provision of training andsupport.3. Employment interventionsThese interventions seek to increase employment of vulnerable groups eitherdirectly or indirectly through increasing job-seeking abilities. The latter ablyaddresses the loss of motivation to seek employment that can arise in thecontext of high unemployment rates. As described above, the Western Capeis increasing seeing this phenomenon of ‘discouraged workers’ (Western CapeProvincial Treasury 2006).39