Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India
This paper offers an evaluation of a supported women’s self-help program with over 1.5 million participants in one of the poorest rural regions of the world (Uttar Pradesh, India). Methodologically, it shows how indicators from the direct capability measurement literature can be adapted for program...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Taylor and Francis
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33769 |
| id |
okr-10986-33769 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
okr-10986-337692021-05-25T10:54:44Z Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India Anand, Paul Szena, Swati Gonzalez Martinez, Rolando Dang, Hai-Anh H. CAPABILITIES CAPABILITY MEASUREMENT SELF-HELP GROUPS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING POVERTY WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT SEN This paper offers an evaluation of a supported women’s self-help program with over 1.5 million participants in one of the poorest rural regions of the world (Uttar Pradesh, India). Methodologically, it shows how indicators from the direct capability measurement literature can be adapted for program evaluation in a low-income country setting. Unique data on capabilities across a range of dimensions are then developed for some 6000 women and used to estimate a number of propensity score matching models. The substantive empirical results of these models indicate that many of the capability indicators are higher for program members, that the difference appears robust, and that there are significant benefits for those from scheduled tribes and lower castes. The discussion highlights two points. First, human development improvements offered by multi-strand programs can help to explain the paradox as to why nearly 100 million women (in India alone) have participated in self-help programs despite modest global research evidence for micro-finance impacts on nominal incomes. Second, results argue strongly for the use of capability measures over agency measures focused solely on household decision-making to assess women’s empowerment when structural causes of disempowerment, external to the household, are present and significant. 2020-05-19T16:09:46Z 2020-05-19T16:09:46Z 2020-04-15 Journal Article Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 1945-2829 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33769 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Journal Article South Asia India |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| topic |
CAPABILITIES CAPABILITY MEASUREMENT SELF-HELP GROUPS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING POVERTY WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT SEN |
| spellingShingle |
CAPABILITIES CAPABILITY MEASUREMENT SELF-HELP GROUPS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING POVERTY WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT SEN Anand, Paul Szena, Swati Gonzalez Martinez, Rolando Dang, Hai-Anh H. Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India |
| geographic_facet |
South Asia India |
| description |
This paper offers an evaluation of a supported women’s self-help program with over 1.5 million participants in one of the poorest rural regions of the world (Uttar Pradesh, India). Methodologically, it shows how indicators from the direct capability measurement literature can be adapted for program evaluation in a low-income country setting. Unique data on capabilities across a range of dimensions are then developed for some 6000 women and used to estimate a number of propensity score matching models. The substantive empirical results of these models indicate that many of the capability indicators are higher for program members, that the difference appears robust, and that there are significant benefits for those from scheduled tribes and lower castes. The discussion highlights two points. First, human development improvements offered by multi-strand programs can help to explain the paradox as to why nearly 100 million women (in India alone) have participated in self-help programs despite modest global research evidence for micro-finance impacts on nominal incomes. Second, results argue strongly for the use of capability measures over agency measures focused solely on household decision-making to assess women’s empowerment when structural causes of disempowerment, external to the household, are present and significant. |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Anand, Paul Szena, Swati Gonzalez Martinez, Rolando Dang, Hai-Anh H. |
| author_facet |
Anand, Paul Szena, Swati Gonzalez Martinez, Rolando Dang, Hai-Anh H. |
| author_sort |
Anand, Paul |
| title |
Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India |
| title_short |
Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India |
| title_full |
Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India |
| title_fullStr |
Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India |
| title_sort |
can women’s self-help groups contribute to sustainable development? evidence of capability changes from northern india |
| publisher |
Taylor and Francis |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33769 |
| _version_ |
1764479477757247488 |