This study aims to address this gap in the literature by investigating the following research questions: 1. Does microfinance empower female clients in terms of overall decision-making and household financial decision-making. Third, this study provides insights into the role of microfinance in women's empowerment, particularly in the Ayeyarwady region of Myanmar – which will help government policymakers perceive a better understanding of the effects of microfinance on women's empowerment in rural areas.
It is also one of the least developed countries in the region, with more than a quarter of the population living in poverty (UNDP, 2011). In Myanmar, women make up 51.7% of the total population, and 68.5% of them live in rural and remote border areas (Department of Population, Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, 2015). Against this background, our study analyzes the effect of microfinance on the empowerment of women in the Ayeyarwady region of Myanmar, which is located in the southern part of the country.
Moving forward, this study focuses on the importance of microfinance in empowering rural women in the Ayeyarwady region as the national poverty incidence in the region is the highest in the country at 19%. According to the Human Development Report of UNDP (1995), the meaning of empowerment is the participation of people in the decision-making process to create their lives. The study population consists of two groups of women living in the Ayeyarwady region: (1) Beneficiaries or clients of microfinance programs in PGMF Myanmar; and (2) Non-Beneficiaries/.
Using a structured survey questionnaire, data was collected from both MFI clients and non-clients living in the selected nine villages.
Results and Discussion
Of the total, 5.7% of clients in microfinance programs and 2% of non-clients earn in the range of over 500,000 MMK. The data shows that 47.7% of clients received micro-business loans, followed by 28.4% to invest in agriculture. 68.2% of customers wanted to expand their existing business, while 29% of customers started new businesses, followed by 15.9% who invested in livestock business and 2.8% of borrowers who use it to diversify their existing business.
As shown in table 8, 42% of decisions are made jointly by husband and wife for children's education, 15.9% are decided mainly by wives and 35.8% by other family members. For family planning, 36.4% of decisions are made jointly by husband and wife, while wives decide in 23.3% of cases. Regarding family health care, 47.2% of decisions are made by husband and wife, while 22.2% of decisions are proposed by the wife.
61.4% of decisions are made by the wife about income utilization, and 43.2% of loan utilization decisions are made by spouses jointly. In terms of overall financial decisions, 40.3% of decisions are made by the wife and 27.3% jointly by the husband and wife (i.e. in terms of income utilization, loan consumption, savings and investment combined). The data shows that 59.2% of decisions about income utilization are made by the wife alone and 32.7% about both savings and investment.
Both husband and wife make 36.7% of decisions on both savings and investment, followed by 14.3% on income utilization. For children's education, 51.1% of clients agree that their decision-making power has improved after accessing microfinance. In terms of loan consumption, 78.4% of customers agree that their decision-making power has improved after enrolling in a microfinance program.
However, regarding family planning and child marriage, 79% and 84% respond that there is no change in their decision-making power. The mean value indicates that there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of decision-making power for children's education, child marriage, savings and investment. Out of 225 respondents, the cross-assessment in Table 15 shows that 89.8% of MFI clients are empowered after receiving the microfinance loan.
Referring to the empowerment factors that distinguish between the two groups, the DA findings show that MFI clients and non-clients differ based on the four decision factors of children's education, children's marriage, savings and investment. This implies that the decision-making power of MFI clients has been improved in terms of children's education, child marriage, savings and investments.
Conclusions and Recommendations
In terms of overall family decision-making, women have gained significant empowerment in decision-making regarding children's education, family planning, and family health care. As for the empowerment factors that distinguish between the two groups of microfinance clients and non-clients, DA based on four factors (making decisions about children's education, child marriage, saving and investing) shows that female clients of microfinance programs have noticed that their empowerment decision-making improved according to all four of these indicators compared to non-participants. The government should encourage wider participation of women in microfinance programs through financial literacy awareness campaigns.
MFIs should organize meetings and workshops for women clients focusing on women's empowerment and meeting women's needs. In addition to traditional activities, more professional and technical training should be offered to women clients of microfinance programs to improve their capacity and thereby strengthen their empowerment. This study also analyzed the female clients of PGMF's microfinance programs in Myanmar and found that access to microfinance loans can have a significant impact on women's empowerment in terms of overall decision-making power.
To draw a strong generalization, future researchers should examine multiple microfinance programs in the country and examine women's empowerment in terms of their actual involvement in income-generating activities, asset ownership, and individual investment. It focused mainly on the female microfinance clients of PGMF, which is the largest microfinance organization in Myanmar. However, since the region covered by the study is one of the priority regions for development in the country due to the high prevalence of poverty, the findings provide a great contribution to policy makers in both the MFI and the government.
In addition, the analysis cannot make a projection on the extent to which microfinance can affect the empowerment level of women, as there may be a primary level of empowerment in the community. The research cannot precisely capture the primary level of empowerment of women involved in income generating activities, although the assessment was conducted among clients and non-clients of microfinance program. Performance Evaluation and Impact of Grameen Bank on Social Development and Women Empowerment in Bangladesh.
Women's autonomy and subjective well-being: how gender norms shape the impact of self-help groups in Odisha, India. A three-dimensional model of women's empowerment: Implications in microfinance and future directions. Qualitative research method: Grounded theory. 2000), Empowerment of women in Egypt and links to their infant survival and health.
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