Lisa Kuhn Fraioli
Microlending Product Manager, Opportunity International
lkuhn@opportunity.org

“In Search of a ‘Recipe’ for Empowerment and Transformation: An In-depth Look at Microcredit and Training at Work in the Lives of Ghanaian Women”

Paper Abstract:
Through in-depth individual interviews with successful clients and spouses of Sinapi Aba Trust, an Opportunity International partner MFI in Ghana, this study seeks to identify changes in gender relations and empowerment and the specific program features that contributed to those changes. Successful clients were chosen in order to deepen understanding of the best-case scenario and look for clues to the “recipe” for successful holistic transformation. The study finds that the combination of credit, business training, peer support, and family and time management advice has helped set off interlinking changes leading toward empowerment in many areas of clients’ lives. Both the advice given in Trust Banks and women’s economic success seemed to play a role in promoting positive impact on the families of clients and women’s empowerment within the home. However, there were limitations. Men’s beliefs about gender roles and responsibilities did not change much as a result of their wives’ participation in the program. However, their behavior did, suggesting that the greatest impact on empowerment may be in the next generation as children are educated and raised with new gender role models in the home.

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Biography:
Lisa Kuhn is a Micro-lending Product Manager in the Product Development Division of the Opportunity International Network. Her work in microfinance includes product development, research on emerging best practices on transformation and client graduation, and development of policy and tools to promote gender equity and sensitivity. She co-authored and presented the chapter on Empowering Women Through Microfinance in Pathways Out of Poverty, commissioned by the Microcredit Summit Campaign for its Microcredit Summit +5. She previously developed policy documents on microfinance for FINCA International and also worked with the Microcredit Summit Secretariat. She received her M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and her B.A. cum laude in Latin American Relations and Romance Languages from DePauw University.