The Gender Dimensions of Programme Participation: Who Joins A Microcredit Programme and Why?

The overriding policy and research attention on the measurement of the impact of microcredit programme participation has meant that the process of participation has remained relatively unexplored. In fact, the ways in which households arrive at the decision to participate may bear importantly on programme effects since participation is essentially part of a household's livelihood strategy. Programme impact will depend not only on programme inputs, but more importantly on how closely desired programme outputs are integrated into specific household and individual strategies. This paper examines the household participation decision on the premise that programme impact hinges crucially on who joins a microcredit programme and why. The paper finds that the household decision to join a programme is determined by the interplay of the household's demand for microcredit, the opportunity costs of membership activities for individual family members and the nature of the intra-household gender relationship. Such a household strategy carries new and important implications for the interpretation of programme effects on both women's empowerment and poverty reduction.