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Gender Analysis Example: Business Development

Because women often lack credit histories and collateral goods, female business owners can be less likely to get business loans. Integrating other forms of credit checks that are culturally appropriate can lower the barriers that impede women's access to investment capital. Photo Source: DevTech Systems, Inc.

Sector: Economic Growth: Business Development

Project Title: Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Business Loans

Objective: To support the growth of small and medium enterprises.

Narrative Brief: An SME development activity had a high rejection rate for women-owned businesses applying for loans because they were viewed as a "bad credit risk" due to their lack of collateral and credit history.

The program modified its requirements to allow the women business owners to offset their lack of credit history with a more extensive reference check and review of financial management skills. It also expanded the types of loan collateral it accepted to include not only automobiles and household appliances - both of which were mostly titled to men - but also jewelry, one of the few assets women owned. This change resulted in more women business owners getting business loans.

Summary Gender Impact: Improves

This project started out with no gender integration in its objective. Consequently, the project did not identify barriers for women. Project monitoring, which included sex-disaggregated data on loans, revealed the high rejection rate for women-owned businesses. The subsequent program adjustments improved gender equality by increasing the likelihood that women business owners could receive loans.

Project cycle juncture where major gender factors might have been identified:

If the project had integrated gender in its objective, the project designers might have asked about cultural factors that could impede the success of the project. However, when they discovered the unequal access, they acted to provide more gender equality in the results.

Project innovations for design, intervention, and implementation:

• The project came up with a creative solution and addressed the gender inequities.

Gender data requirements:

• A gender analysis prior to the project design that examined cultural or policy barriers to gender equality for both sexes could have uncovered the gender factors that limited women's ability to benefit from the project.

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