Africa/Global: Promoting gender-sensitive entrepreneurship via microfinance institutions

The main focus of this paper is on how staff from a microfinance institution can interact with potential clients in a more gender-sensitive manner. Microfinance is a mechanism for triggering or sustaining social and economic development by supporting entrepreneurial activities, and can have multiple spin-off benefits, including the potential to be a component of poverty reduction strategies, thus contributing to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Whilst clients who use microfinance services differ according to age, income, ethnicity and whether they access microfinance services as individuals or in groups, typical microfinance clientele in many parts of the world have been resource poor female entrepreneurs.