AFRICANEWS

Malawi

Too many, yet too few reached

High illiteracy levels limit many people, especially Malawian women's capacity to penetrate into the formal employment. However, though illiteracy can limit women's economic empowerment, it can not stop it.

While the formal sector in Malawi can only take 14 per cent of women, enterpreneurship provides the only alternative to the economic empowerment of women considering that 51 per cent of the labour force are women and that the majority of them are very poor and live below the poverty line.

According to the 1993 Malawi labour document by the university of Malawi, 64 per cent of female aged from 10 years are in informal employment mostly as small holder farmers and unpaid family workers.

Concerned with the economic plight the Malawi women face, women's World Banking (WWB) one of the major money lending institutions for women was established in 1990 to promote the economic empowerement of the poor.

The organisation aims at providing credit,training, information technology and markets. But it was not until 1994 that its facilities became operational with two programmes, the Social Dimensions of Adjustment (SDA) programme and the small and medium Enterprises Fund (SMEF) which WWB assisted a total of 3,206 women with loans.

The social dimensions adjustment programme was started with the aim of minimising the adverse effects of structural adjustment programme (SAP) on vulnerable groups of the Malawian society and strengthening the capacity for the intergration of the poor in the national development planning process.

The programme supported the establishment of community-based micro-projects aimed at alleviating poverty and was a quick loan disbursing instrument for support to demand-driven community project, hence WWB's participation in thw programme.

Beneficiaries accessed to credit through a group-based lending system since the majority did not have assets to declare as collateral, with a 36 percent rate. The SMEF is a revolving credit schem worth 100 million kwacha (US$ 6.3 million) which the government launched to boost small and medium businesses as part ofits poverty alleviation programme.

Three money lending institutions, WWB inclusive were identified by the government to disburse the funds while the Central Bank, Reserve Bank of Malawi acted as a brokering agents. The requirment was that 60 per cent of the money was to finance enterprises owned by women and 75 per cent to be extended to qualifying enterprises in rural areas of Malawi.

The WWB was allocated 24 million kwacha (US$ 1.6 million) which was disbursed to about 3,000 women. "This money, against 55,000 women we trained was very little to meet the demand," says Ms Mary Nyadovi-Kerr, Executive director of the WWB. Lack of funding is one of the handles that is preventing the organisation from reaching many disadvantaged women, she observes. The WWB's target is to reach 85 per cent rural women, but according to the number of women reached so far, the task seems almost impossible. Research findings from the National statistical officer indicates that 54 per cent of Malawi's population are women and the majority of them live in rural areas which is why Ms Kerr says her organisation needs an estimated budget of 55 million Kwacha a year in order to reach approximately 20,000 women.

"So far these two programmes are the only source of funding that the organisation has had. We are patiently looking for other donors to lend us the estimated money," she says adding that the WWB has submitted its proposals to both local and international organisations for additional funding. Inadequate personnel is another problem the organisation is facing as it tries to make follow-up of the initiated businesses.

The human problem is due to the fact that the SMEF package did not include ,operational costs. Administrative costs were to met by the disbursing organisations, says the organisation's 1995/96 investing in women enterpreneurs report.

"The SMEF was launched in a hurry, the design of the project did not clear define indicators for monitoring purposes, this has perhaps been one the weakness in the scheme," says the report. Political interference is another issue which is hindering the success of WWB note Ms Kerr.

She observes that the masses misunderstood President Bakili Muluzi's statement when he launched SMEF that the fund had been set up as part of the government's poverty alleviation programmes to mean that the loans would be made available to every Malawian, as a result every politician especially Members of Parliament from the ruling party and the opposition expected the WWB to give out loans in each and every constituency.

Says Ms Kerr: "When we failed to meet the demand as the resources were not enough there were accusations from both camps that WWB favours one or the other to the extent that some politicians told beneficiaries never to repay the loans."

The National Business Association of women (NABW), another money-lending institution for women was formed five years ago, initially as an advisory business organisation targetting the rural women.

It was in 1995 when SMEF was launched that the NABW under the presidential decree was instructed to get involved in the disbursement of the funds. Its share of the fund was 35 million Kwacha which the organisation managed to distribute to 7,000 women although the organisation trained 12,000 potential women enterpreneurs.

NABW's Chief, Joyce Banda also cited lack of funds, human resources and high illiteracy levels among Malawian women as some of the problems preventing the organisation from making the much desired progress.

Ms Banda who was voted in the 1996 joint recipient of the African hunger award for her efforts in empowering women says illiterate women sometimes fail to understand basic principles of business. The National Statistical officer put illiteracy levels among Malawian women at 68.4 per cent, with the majority of them living in rural areas. However, Banda says her ,organisation conducts business seminars in simple terms to allow the least educated to follow. NABW estimates that a budget of 30 million Kwacha (US$ 2 million) a year could enable the organisation reach 10,000 women.

"With this type of budget, we are sure that we could make in-roads in the village reducing the majority of suffering women," she said.

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