AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF SELF HELP GROUPS ON WOMEN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT: THE CASES OF SELECTED ORGANIZATIONS IN DIRE DAWA CITY

Abstract

Women are playing several economic, social and political roles in the society. These roles, however, were not well recognized in several societies especially in developing countries. Ethiopia is among the countries, which has signed several international treaties and made proclamations, policies, and regulations regarding women rights but the problems relayed to women are not yet fully addressed. This is mainly because the policies and regulations are not fully internalized by the community and the presence of women under deprived economic conditions. On top of these non-state actors such as civil society organizations should work proactively towards empowerment starting from formation of women groups to end of termination stages. The study was initiated to assess the contribution of self-help groups in social and economic empowerment of women, investigate the linkage between financial institutions and SHG statues, identify the challenges that SHG are facing at unit and system levels and explore the contribution of social organizations in strengthening SHG. The study result revealed that self-help groups (SHG) are playing important role in determining the status of women in social organizations and the level of decision making at household level. Women are also advocating about women and children rights in several occasions and are attracting the attention of the kebele administration as important partner. The income of women has shown improvement though the amount of loan is still small. Generally, the contribution of SHGs is magnificent in improving women social and economic status hence empowered them to be economically self-reliant.