Microfinance Practice: Re: [MFP] Fwd: [se-gen]QUERY: Addressing Violence against Women through Microfinance – Experiences; Referrals. Reply by 5 November 2013 [1 Attachment]

Dear Smita and all,

Thank you very much for this important note ... Oxfam-Novib and Hivos have been supporting the WEMAN project (www.wemanglobal.org, www.genfinance.info) in many parts of the world, promoting the Gender Action Learning System (GALS). ... At the UN-Women ''expert group meeting'' on economic empowerment of women in Ghana, some of the logics behind and assessment evaluation of this has been discussed, based on an article titled:

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN AND GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN RURAL MICROFINANCE''.

... I believe that this article (9 pgs) could be relevant for further discussion. Please find attached, as well as in the UN-Women web:

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw56/egm.htm

Kind Regards

Getaneh Gobezie

Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WEDP)

Private Enterprise Programme Ethiopia (PEPE)

Mail:ggobezie@firstconsult.et

getanehg2002@yahoo.com

On Tuesday, October 22, 2013 10:17 PM, Smita Premchander <smitapremchander@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Members, kindly see this query, would be glad for your responses.. and if you can, please send them also to Dr. Malika Basu, resource person of the United Nations Solution Exchange, Gender Community of Practice, as she can carry the response on the UNSE as well, which is hosted by UNWOMEN and the United Nations Country Team in India.

Thanks in advance.

Smita

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Smita Premchander and Jonna Bickel <se-gen@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
Date: 21 October 2013 10:50
Subject: [se-gen]QUERY: Addressing Violence against Women through Microfinance – Experiences; Referrals. Reply by 5 November 2013
To: "se-gen@solutionexchange-un.net.in" <se-gen@solutionexchange-un.net.in>

Moderators' Note: Dear Members, The below appended query follows our recently posted [se-gen] FOR INFO-URGENT. GIZ-Sampark-Gender Community Partnership: Addressing Violence Against Women Through Microfinance. The FOR INFO was posted on 14 October 2013. We hope members received this posting. Along with this query on addressing VAW through microfinance, we are also running a Discussion initiated by Aswathy S, IAS, Director-Social Welfare, Department of Women and Child, Government of Odisha (GoO) on a Policy on Gird Child and Women that is being formulated by the GoO. Depending on their interest and expertise, members may choose to respond to both or either of the two queries/discussions. Owing to two discussions running simultaneously, members are most likely to receive multiple postings each day. Please do stay tuned, if you can and participate actively in the on-going discussions! Many thanks and Greetings, Malika.

Dear Members,

In rural India, women play a key role in developing the lives of themselves and their families. They are believed to be more responsible in dealing with money and more focused on spending it on productive purposes as well as on social needs of the family like health and education. But still women face a lot of challenges in their lives: domestic violence as well as assaults in public are very common.

Microfinance has been expected to deliver on poverty reduction and women's (economic) empowerment. If women have more (access to) money through microfinance, and a higher capacity for self-determination, increased voice - then women should be able to stop men from beating them, and should be able to 'walk out' of violent homes if they face continued violence. The question is: do they? Do they stop men, and other family members, abusing them? What are the forms of violence rural women face, and are they able to stop it, to any measure, if they are more economically empowered?

These are important questions we need to ask to better understand the situation in which rural low income women in India are living. We need to understand why such a high degree of violence persists and to understand what can help women to overcome such situations. GIZ (German Development Cooperation) and Sampark are jointly engaged in analyzing particularly the role of Microfinance and Self-help groups (SHGs) and does it really help the women and how are they using it to their benefit to address any issues of violence against them?

With Gender Community as a facilitating knowledge partner, GIZ and Sampark are aiming through its analysis to develop some action plan/s based on a grounded understanding of VAW and how microfinance helps/can help.

In this regard, we request members of the Gender Community to share their research, practical experiences, and lessons on the following:

· What are the forms of violence rural women face in their homes and public places and who is the violence perpetrated by (e.g. husbands/fathers/brothers) and on whom (e.g. wives/daughters/daughter-in-laws)?

· What are the factors that cause violent behaviour and how do those facing violence deal with it? What support systems do they have to address violence particularly within homes?

· Does Microfinance/SHGs – enabling a greater voice and more money in hand for women - impact the situation of women who are facing violence?

In addition, it would be useful if members could throw some light on any external agencies (with focus on microfinance/economic empowerment) facilitating the prevention and reduction of violence against women, and in mitigating the effects of violence?

Responses to this e-discussion will be incorporated in a paper that GIZ and Sampark would prepare, with due acknowledgement to the contributors. The paper will also include results of a literature survey and discussions with individual women, SHGs, federations and cooperatives, in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

We thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge, experience and perspectives on this issue, which is very important for understanding and improving the gender and empowerment impacts of microfinance. We look forward to your active contributions.

Best regards,

Smita Premchander, Sampark/Bangalore and

Jonna Bickel, GIZ, New Delhi

From: Malika Basu [mailto:malika.basu@one.un.org]
Sent: 14 October, 2013 15:09
To: se-gen@solutionexchange-un.net.in
Subject: [se-gen] FOR INFO-URGENT. GIZ-Sampark-Gender Community Partnership:Addressing Violence Against Women Through Microfinance

Dear Members,

Today's FOR INFO brings you the news of Gender Community's yet another – and the last - initiative of 2013.

We are pleased to share with you a collaborative venture between Sampark (a Bangalore based NGO), GIZ (New Delhi), and the Gender Community (as a facilitating knowledge partner) to highlight issues specifically concerning Violence Against Women, and focus on how Microfinance to women addresses VAW.

We are sharing with you the key deliverables of this collaborative venture with a request that if this issue falls within your domain of expertise (research or practical), please contribute by submitting a response, and sending any papers you may have written, which will be duly acknowledged in due course.

Key Deliverables (Time Line: October-December 2013)

· Hosting a discussion on the Gender Community's e-platform to discuss the key links between access to finance and reduction of violence against women (VAW), in theory and practice - Watch out for this e-discussion! Coming Soon!

· The discussion will be followed by a paper summarising research undertaken, and practical experiences of civil society organisations in addressing VAW though microfinance as well as other initiatives/interventions.

· A second paper will be on Violence Against Women and how Microfinance does or can address this. This paper will also benefit from the field visits to three locations, and key informant interviews that are being conducted by Sampark and Priyasakhi Mahila Mandal (Indore/Madhya Pradesh).

· A consultative seminar with a group of experts and practitioners to share the findings and information collected/collated based on the e-discussion, the two written papers, and the field visits.

· Final Report – a document with recommendations on the lines of an 'action plan' - for dissemination and advocacy purposes that shall be undertaken by Sampark, GIZ and their network partners. In addition, the action plan will be shared with Gender Community members as well as relevant ministries/government agencies.

We take this opportunity to thank our members both in Sampark (Bangalore) and GIZ (New Delhi), who took this initiative; particularly, we would like to thank Dr. Smita Premchander, who is also one of the advisory members of the Gender Community and Jonna Bickel (GIZ).

We would once again like to draw our members attention that through its Knowledge Management work, the Gender Community continuously tries to reach far and wide to development practitioners so as to facilitate their work to the optimum, and thereby accelerate the achievements of many of our development goals. It is our endeavour that more and more practitioners in India/South Asia, realize the importance (and potential) of the field of knowledge management in the development sector, and make use of the services such as the ones offered by the Gender Community of UN Solution Exchange.

Those following closely the activities of the Gender Community would know that the Community's profile is fast changing. In the last three/four years, we are no longer restricted to 'e-queries-consolidated reply' mode of knowledge sharing or knowledge management. The Community's work goes much beyond its online discussions/services. Our last Annual Report (2012) is a testimony to that. Please access ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/gen/resource/res_info_01011302.pdf (PDF; Size: 1.67MB) to know more about the Community's work and share it, if you can, within your networks, encouraging others to join the Community. Membership to the Gender Community is free and voluntary; members can unsubscribe anytime they wish.

Update "YOUR PROFILES"

We would like to close this FOR INFO with our regular call - 'update your profiles'! Please access ftp://ftp.solutionexchange.net.in/public/gen/SE_Gender_Memb_Form.doc - fill the requisite information if you have not done it as yet, and send it back to us.

Any feedback that helps us to promote, strengthen and improve our Knowledge Management work and services is most welcome. You can address your mails to me at malika.basu@one.un.org or send to se-gen@solutionexchange-un.net.in

Peace and Solidarity

Malika Basu

Resource Person & Moderator

Gender Community