Das Konzept des empowerment bei der Evaluierung von Frauenkreditprogrammen in Afrika

During the last decade, microcredits for women became very popular in the field of poverty alleviation. Women are known as "good borrowers" because of high repayment rates. Furthermore, by using the credit in the interest of the familiy they serve the objective of poverty alleviation more effectively than men. However, besides poverty alleviation, the credit programs try to empower women. By generating an income, women should gain "power". However, the credit programs concentrate on the formal decision-making process and the acces to resources by evaluating the impact of microcredits on the empowerment of women. Other dimensions of empowerment are neglected. This can be partly explained by the underlying concept of power which is based on economic bargaining models. Especially, the question of the bargaining agenda and the discourses on valid norms and gender roles are not included. Moreover, regarding the scope of action of women, it is focused on the household level whereas the importance of the women space is ignored. At the same time, the institutions of the women space are used to secure the repayment of the credits. Furthermore, by using Sudan as an example, it will be shown that credit programs are used to transport western or islamic "fundamentalistic" gender roles in contrast to local and traditional concepts.