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Understanding Local Realities of Microfinance and Women's Empowerment in Sri Lanka: The Effectiveness of the Samurdhi Program from the Perspective of Beneficiaries in a Rural Community

Understanding Local Realities of Microfinance and Women's Empowerment in Sri Lanka: The Effectiveness of the Samurdhi Program from the Perspective of Beneficiaries in a Rural Community

Volume 4 Number 2, Autumn 2013 pp. 29-54(26)
Research Article
2013/9/1
Jayawardana, Poornima Gayangani Wasana
The impact of microfinance on women's empowerment remains inconclusive. This qualitative case study examines how the Samurdhi program, the largest microfinance provider in Sri Lanka, has contributed to women's empowerment in the three dimensions of economic empowerment, household well-being, and social and political empowerment, analyzing the perspective of beneficiaries in a rural community. The study finds that the majority of program benefits for women come in the area of household well-being, whereas economic empowerment—through entrepreneurial promotion—and social and political empowerment have not reached their potential. The findings further highlight that the same program activities having an empowering effect on one individual may have a disempowering effect on another. Moreover, the same intervention having an empowering effect on one dimension may have a disempowering effect on another dimension for the same individual. The empowerment of women depends on the strengthening and weakening factors at the individual, household, community and macro levels.
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