Economics

Using data from a recent ethnographic study in rural Bangladesh to explore relationships between men’s violence against women in the home, women’s economic and social dependence on men, and microcredit programmes, this paper suggests that microcredit programmes have a varied effect on men’s violence against women. They can reduce women’s vulnerability to men’s violence by […]

The Small Enterprise Development Fund of the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British Government commissioned a literature review and held workshops, both co-ordinated by ActionAid UK, to assess the impact of micro-finance schemes on women’s empowerment. Three broad approaches to micro-finance for women are identified as well as the constraints affecting impact in […]

Recent conflicts in the Balkans have been portrayed largely in terms of ethnic and religious divisions, with Western military and diplomatic intervention seen as essential to securing a positive outcome. However, these divisions are the consequence of a deeper process of economic and political fracturing. The re-structuring of the former Yugoslav economy, and the policies […]

Citing the case of the Self Employed Women’s Association’s (SEWA) experience in nine districts of Gujarat, India, an argument is presented for returning almost the entire forestry sector to the women through their cooperatives of groups. Such an argument is based on the fact that almost one third of poor women are directly or indirectly […]

The author presents the views of Thailand’s Population and Community Development Association (PDA – Thailand’s largest NGO) about how to provide women attracted to the commercial sex industry (CSI) with economically viable alternatives to this accepted (in Thailand) type of `manual labour’. Research has shown that poverty is the major factor cited by voluntary commercial […]

The Full Circle Project is a response by a women’s organisation to the dynamics of women’s poverty and economic exclusion in contemporary Britain. The authors emphasise the need for credit provision for women to be seen as only one part of an integrated strategy for poverty reduction. This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor […]

Participatory appraisal methods have been developed in a Southern context to facilitate the involvement of people in analysing their own situation and seeking solutions to their problems. This article describes a Community Assessment in the UK, in which participatory methods were used effectively to support community residents in putting together a plan for local action. […]