| Abstract: | The study assessed the practice and contribution of a self-help group approach project on women's economic empowerment implemented by Love for Children organization Addis Ababa. Both primary and secondary data and qualitative and quantitative methods were used for the purpose of the study. Statistical tools such as descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations are used in analyzing the data collected. In this study, the contribution of SHG project on the economic empowerment of target beneficiaries was assessed to determine the magnitude of changes due to the project intervention. Specifically, the study examines the overall SHG project implementation practices of LCO and beneficiaries' level of participation in accordance with the major guiding approaches for SHG project intervention. Apart from the above, with the aim of paving the way for future study, this study assessed if there are missing components in the implementation of the project under study. Accordingly the study found that, the project under study conforms to the major guiding approaches in the process of beneficiary enrollment, screening, categorization procedure, and implementation of operating principles. Moreover, the beneficiary's level of participation in the initial, planning and implementation phases of the project is found high.
Regarding the economic status of beneficiaries it’s found that most of the beneficiaries are improved to major economic empowerment indicators after the project intervention. One of the contributions of the project intervention in this regard is the change in the saving habits of beneficiaries. The project has facilitated loans to all the beneficiaries where majority of them used the loan for productive investment. In addition, the majority of the respondents witnessed improvement in their income after the intervention of the project. Moreover, social asset inclusion is provided for the sustainability of the empowerment process. As the study shows more beneficiaries are engaged in MSB after the project intervention in which they can create access to household employment opportunity but vocational skill training and creation of linkage with formal financial institutions have not get much emphasis in the activities of the project which is found as a missing component in the SHG intervention of LCO.. |
