The Role of Microfinance in Empowering Women in Mannar District

Abstract

Introduction - Microfinance plays a huge role in promoting women entrepreneurship in most developing countries including Sri Lanka. In the post-war period that means after 2009 to 2019, Microfinance helps these poor women to grow up their lives by creating income as well as other several empowerment factors. This study mainly focuses on assessing the positive impact of microfinance on empowering women in Mannar District, Sri Lanka during 2009-2019. So the study was conducted at Mannar District in Sri Lanka which is one of the waraffected areas. Design/ Methodology/ Approach - In this study, both the qualitative and quantitative methods have been used to obtain a reliable output. Further primary data was derived from a questionnaire survey of a sample of 100 women clients and in-depth interviews were carried out with another four. The women clients were selected randomly from five divisional Secretariat areas which are Madu, Manthai West, Musali, Nannaddan and Mannar town. In the quantitative analysis, descriptive analysis and factor analysis methods were used to find out the association between the variables of women empowerment by using SPSS statistical software. Findings - The factor analysis results show that there are five women empowerment factors and descriptive analysis indicates that microfinance has positively impacted the said women empowerment factors and further it is proved by in-depth interviews. Conclusion - The study concluded that microfinance activities are necessary for overall women empowerment.