Global: Women's empowerment through sustainable micro-finance

This paper challenges assumptions about the automatic benefits of micro-finance for women. It argues that financial indicators of access - such as women's programme membership and size of loans - cannot be used as indicators of women's empowerment. High repayment levels by women do not necessarily indicate that women have used the loans themselves. Men may take the loans from women, or women may choose to invest the loans in men's activities.