Assessing The Socio-economic Impact Of Self Help Groups A Case To Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church Nazreth Integrated Urban Development Project

As many years passed by, different attempts have been made to mitigate the effect ofrnpoverty in many parts of the world. In sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries,rnvarious development efforts have been tried to avert the miserable living conditions of thernpoor; but many of them remained unsuccessful. As one of the sub-Saharan Africa countries,rndifferent attempts had been made to improve the life of the poor in Ethiopia. The Self HelprnGroup (SHG) development strategy is one of those efforts; and it is a community owned andrnmanaged poverty alleviation program designed to empower the poor in general and the poorrnwomen in particular.rnAdama, the town where this study was conducted, is one of the fast growing towns inrnthe country, and it has various social problems. Population influx, unemployment, lack ofrnhousing, lack of basic facilities, etc were the salient problems from which most of thernresidents are suffering from. To lessen the impact of these problems, various measures havernbeen undertaken by different governmental, non-governmental, and civic organizations; andrnthe Self Help Group development approach that the Ethiopian Kale Heywet ChurchrnNazareth Integrated Community Development Project is undertaking in the town is one ofrnthose attempts.rnIn view of the fact that the SHG is a newly introduced development model in Ethiopia, thernpurpose of this study was to assess its social and economic impact on the life of the poor. Inrnthe process of assessing the impact of SHG, seeking answer to the research questions “Hasrnparticipation in the SHG enhance the economic and social capacity of the poor women; andrnthereby contribute to the national poverty alleviation effort?” was made.rnSocio-economic impact of Self Help Groups …rnIXrnIXrnIn order to come up with an adequate reply to the questions under the study, bothrnquantitative and qualitative research methodologies were employed. Data gathered fromrnvarious groups of respondents were then analyzed and summarized.rnImproved saving habit, enhanced access to loan, wider opportunity to involve inrndifferent kinds of individual and group IGAs, improved decision making power of SHGrnmembers at household, group, and community level, participation in various trainings andrnthe resulting increase in knowledge and skills, and improved household consumption werernsome of the major outcomes of involvement in SHGs. Besides, social cohesion created duernto group interaction and mutual support among SHG members were also found to bernvaluable gains of involvement in SHGs.rnThe SHGs that the NCDP is undertaking in Adama town consisted of disempoweredrnpoor women whom almost half of them were either divorced, separated, or widowed womenrnwho shouldered the responsibility of earning an income for their families. Likewise, socialrnwork is a profession that is concerned in helping underprivileged members of the society,rnenhancing the well being of people within their social context and addressing the well-beingrnof society as a whole. Such a resemblance of the two services calls for the close workingrnrelationship between them. Thus, self-help groups, as an empowerment approach, needs tornclosely collaborate with social work service provision organizations for the better benefit ofrntheir clients

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