| Abstract: |
A review of the recent evaluation evidence on financial services and training
interventions questions their gender neutrality and suggests that some design
features in these interventions can yield more positive economic outcomes for
women than for men. These include features in savings and ‘Graduation’
programs that increase women’s economic self-reliance and self-control, and
the practice of repeated micro borrowing that increases financial risk-taking
and choice. ‘Smart’ design also includes high quality business management and
jobs skills training, and stipends and other incentives in these training
programs that address women’s additional time burdens and childcare demands.
Peer support may also help to increase financial risk taking and confidence in
business decisions, and may augment an otherwise negligible impact of
financial literacy training. These features help women overcome gender-related
constraints. However, when social norms are too restrictive, and women are
prevented from doing any paid work, no design will be smart enough. Subjective
economic empowerment appears to be an important intermediate outcome for women
that should be promoted and more reliably and accurately measured. More
research is also needed on de-biasing service provision, which can be gender
biased; lastly, whenever possible, results should be sex-disaggregated and
reported for individuals as well as households. |