Is Microfinancing empowering women in South America Research Paper

Is Microfinancing empowering women in South America - Research Paper Example This paper concludes that the effects of microfinancing have a positive influence to women empowerment in Latin America. This paper also concludes that the overall empowerment level of women in Latin America is significant and provides spaces for women to run viable businesses and contribute to family’s income. Introduction Microcredit, in a wider dimension called microfinance, has in the recent years become a much favored intervention not only for poverty alleviation but also for empowering women across the South American countries (Hofstede, 2012). Microfinance is an economic development approach that has evolved so as to benefit low-income persons all over the world. The term refers to the provisioning of financial services by financial institutions to their low-income clients. The general financial services are savings and credit; although some microfinance institutions provide payment and insurance services. The definition of microfinance should include both the financial and social intermediations for it to empower women (Inter-American Development Bank, 2012). Microfinance activities involve: * Small loans, usually for working capital * Streamlined microcredit disbursement and monitoring * Informal appraisals of investments * Collateral substitutes, such as compulsory savings and group guarantees * Access to larger repeated loans, based on the performance of a person’s repayment * Securing savings products (Hofstede, 2012). The microfinance industry in Latin America is comprised of numerous number of institutions that can be categorized in 3 groups. The first group is the NGOs which largely provisions financial services to micro entrepreneurs. Besides the financial services, these NGOs provide business development services such as business trainings and consultancy. This is the group that contains the largest number of institutions in Latin America (ACCION International, 2011) The second group is those institutions that formerly were NGOs b ut have up scaled their financial operations and are currently regulated by the banking systems of their country. This can be group can be referred as microfinance Institutions. The last group the commercial banks that have now targeted the low income earners into their trade. This combination of microfinance providers represent what is in the modern age referred as the commercialization of microfinancing in Latin America. Microfinancing is a potential phenomenon that that is used in Latin America to alleviate poverty (Attay, 2007). Empowering women however in micro finance would require several. Microfinance is a potential tool that can have a powerful impact on the process of women empowerment. Women empowerment is a multifaceted process that is characterized by change in a person although all individuals (Unite for Sight, 2010) experience it differently. Women across the South American countries profit from microcredit and other financial services. Strengthening the financial bas e of women and is an important role in empowering them. However, women are not only empowered by providing them with direct credits. This paper examines the perspectives under which women are empowered (Lee, et al. 2010). Problem Statement When examining the impact of microfinancing on women empowerment in Latin America, the following challenges were experienced by the field of microfinance in this region. First, it is important to note that one the key role of microfinance is providing accessible financial