The Effect of Women Empowerment through Self-Help Groups on Poverty Reduction in Rural Ghana: A Case Study of Elmina in Ghana

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 영남대학교 박정희새마을연구원
· 수록지 정보 : 새마을학연구 / 2권 / 2호 / 1 ~ 42페이지
· 저자명 : 아마 아피아 아체암퐁, 이희욱

초록

Women empowerment is one of the most discussed issues in the present world, especially in developing countries. Ghana is one of the developing countries with the majority 51percent of its population being women. Since achieving independence, poverty has been dominating here. Governments, civil society organizations, development practitioners and bilateral as well as multilateral development organizations have over the past three or so decades worked and continue to do so towards reducing national and global poverty. This drive led to an emergence of different policy interventions, which are human centered. Key among these policy interventions is the empowerment of women who are identified as the most vulnerable, suffering disproportionately from poverty and its consequences. This explains why world leaders, with the turn of this millennium, dedicated two of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to work towards bridging the gap between men and women and improving maternal health. These can only be achieved through the empowerment of women.
The study revealed a number of findings which include: diverse nature of SHGs with about 47 percent being formed along economic, 33 percent along religious and 20 percent along social lines respectively; skill training, education and low interest credit facilities are some of the strategies adopted in empowering women through SHGs. The extent of women’s empowerment through the SHGs have impact on poverty reduction in the municipality and is commendable. But not withstanding this fact, a number of hindrances are encountered by these women and this impedes the smooth operations of their groups in empowering women, for example, lack of capital,low literacy levels of the members, high interest rates amongst others. In view of these findings, a number of proposals were made to enhance the empowerment of women through SHG’s. These include the following: Government subsidies on operational cost,education, low interest and accessible loans, women policies amongst others.

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