The Role Of Ngos In Alleviating Womens Poverty The Case Of Two Projects In Addis Abeba

Women in Ethiopia have been plagued by abject poverty in both urban andrnrural areas for centuries basically because of structural factors such asrneconomic, social, cultural and political. These factors are the root causes ofrnwomen’s poverty and gender inequality in the country. Although a good deal ofrnresearch focusing on the role of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) inrnpoverty alleviation in Ethiopia has been compiled, ways of maximizing the rolernof NGOs in alleviating women’s poverty, finding out how and why women arernrendered most vulnerable to poverty and determining the underlying causes ofrnfeminization in relation to development issues, have largely gone unexamined.rnThis study attempts to fill this gap. It has set out to do the job by inquiring intornthe operations of two NGO projects and their 168 women beneficiaries duringrnthe past 3-5 years in the respective NGOs’ Saving and Credit Program (SCP).rnAll women including married, divorced, widowed and single living in thernintervention areas of the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Developmentrn(ACORD) Ethiopia close to the French Embassy area of Addis Ababa and thosernliving in the intervention areas of the Organization for Women in SelfrnEmployment (WISE) in the Nefas Silk, Kirkos locality of the capital wererncovered by the study.rnThe study draws from clarification of concepts and analytical tools related tornpoverty issues as provided in various research works made by internationallyrnrecognized agencies including UNDP. Various researches undertaken by expertrngroups along with recognized reports they released like the 1997 HumanrnDevelopment Report, Human Poverty Index and others were also consulted.rnData was obtained from three sources collected through focus grouprndiscussions with women SCP beneficiary groups and women committeemembers as a unit of analysis, as well as from few questionnaires and otherrndocuments.rnThe paper also highlights the role of ACORD and WISE in alleviating women’srnpoverty through SCP. While acknowledging that these NGOs have indeedrncontributed to change the conditions of women to some extent, this researchrnestablishes that they still find it difficult to change the socio-economic status ofrnwomen without solving the gender inequality prevailing at household andrncommunity levels.rnResearch participants involved in the qualitative assessment process disclosedrnthat alleviating women’s poverty only through SCP is unthinkable withoutrntackling poverty problems at the household level. They further suggest that thernever deepening trends in poverty, the growing gap between the demand andrnsupply and lack of capacity to compete in the market, reluctance of husbands tornrecognize the status of women as bread-winners, the unbalanced genderrndivision of labor that burdens women with multiple family responsibilities, asrnwell as lack of ownership by women of the means of production to expand theirrnbusinesses have combined to constrain the work of NGOs in fully realizing theirrnintended objective to alleviate women’s poverty in a sustainable way.rnEnough said, this study concludes that, based on the data collected from thernstudy groups, there is a continuing threat to the efforts of NGOs to achieve theirrnobjectives. The study establishes that it is quite hard to alleviate women’srnpoverty just by giving loans through saving and credit schemes. The paperrnindicates that gender inequality currently existing within the family and in therncommunity as a whole is quite enormous. It is felt that, no matter how intensivernthe NGO’s intervention in the area might be, it may still not be possible tornalleviate women’s poverty in a sustainable way unless these efforts arernbuttressed by other interventions particularly intended to transform the familyrnand the society by promoting gender equality and eradicating integratedrnhousehold poverty.This research is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is devoted to anrnintroductory note focusing on the background of poverty in Ethiopia, origin,rnrole and development of NGOs in Ethiopia, policy environment and legalrnframeworks for NGOs, as well as statement of the problem, hypothesis, thernresearch questions, the objective and significance of the study, definition of keyrnterms and limitation of the study. Chapter two deals with clarification ofrnconcepts and analytical tools based on established international research andrnofficial reports that focus on development and poverty issues particularlyrnfeminization of poverty. Chapter three contains elaborate explanations aboutrnresearch methodology, data collection methods, data processing proceduresrnand limitations during the study.rnChapter four outlines research findings based on data collected from FGD,rnquestionnaires and documentary evidence. The findings are presented in threerncategories of the role of NGOs’ in changing the life of women beneficiaries ofrnSCP. The three categories are:rn Demographic characteristics and socio-economic status of the studyrngroups;rn Positive socio-economic changes of NGO-led SCP on beneficiary groups;rnandrn Problems faced by women SCP beneficiaries as members, as a group and inrntheir families.rnThe chapter concludes with a brief overview of findings and their implications.rnThe fifth and final chapter is devoted to conclusions and recommendationsrnderived from the findings. List of tables, samples of questionnaires and studyrnguides are also annexed to the paper

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