Microcredit Program Evaluations and Women’s Empowerment in South Asia and Southeast Asia: A Systematic Review Público

Abstract

Microcredit has been hailed as a revolutionary pathway to empower women in the most disadvantaged settings. Despite its continued popularity and growth, there has been much debate on whether it truly empowers women. This systematic review takes a step back from this debate to understand the contents of the evaluations that reach these mixed conclusions. The focus of this review is South Asia and Southeast Asia. A total of 23 articles were included. This review aims to identify indicators used to measure women’s empowerment and understand the study design and context under which the evaluations were conducted. This review concludes with a discussion on the implications for policy and practice of microcredit programs, and recommendations for the direction of future research.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2

Microcredit 2

Development and Organization of Microcredit 3

Impacts of Microcredit Schemes 5

Microcredit in South Asia and Southeast Asia 7

Evaluating Microcredit Schemes 8

Impact of Microcredit 8

Women’s Empowerment 11

Purpose Statement14

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS 20

Aim 1: What is the impact of microcredit on women’s empowerment?20

Aim 2: Understand the study and the context under which evaluations took place 28

CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION 30

Recommendations 30

Limitations 31

Conclusions and Implications for Future Research, Practice, and Policy 32

REFERENCES 33

APPENDIX A ARTICLES INCLUDED IN THE SYSTEMATIC REVIEW 36

APPENDIX B SUMMARY DATA EXTRACTION TABLE 38

APPENDIX C COMPLETE DATA EXTRACTION TABLE 41

APPENDIX D CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 76

TABLES 3

   TABLE 1: DIFFERENT TYPES OF CREDIT LENDING MODEL 3

   TABLE 2: HOW TO MEASURE THE PERFORMANCE OF MICROCREDIT PROGRAMS 9

   TABLE 3: DEFINITIONS OF WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT AND INDICATORS13

   TABLE 4: LITERATURE SEARCH TERMS 19

   TABLE 5: STUDIES FINDING POSITIVE IMPACT ON WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT 22

FIGURES 17

   FIGURE 1: COUNTRIES INCLUDED IN REVIEW 17

   FIGURE 2: INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION CRITERIA 17

   FIGURE 3: FLOW DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING ARTICLE REVIEW PROCESS 19

   FIGURE 4: DATA EXTRACTION TABLE EXAMPLE 20

   FIGURE 5: EXAMPLE OF WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT INDICATORS OVERLAP 27

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Hubert Department of Global Health
Degree	M.P.H.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Economics, Finance Health Sciences, Human Development Health Sciences, Public Health
Palavra-chave	Women's Empowerment Microcredit South Asia Southeast Asia Systematic Review
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Deborah McFarland, Emory University

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