The Role of NGO's in Alleviating Women's Poverty: The Case of Two Projects in Addis Abeba
| dc.contributor.advisor | Mersha, Gebru (PhD) | |
| dc.contributor.author | Kebede, Ginbowgsh | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-07-06T11:11:42Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-11-18T08:46:28Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-07-06T11:11:42Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-11-18T08:46:28Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2007-05 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Women in Ethiopia have been plagued by abject poverty in both urban and rural areas for centuries basically because of structural factors such as economic, social, cultural and political. These factors are the root causes of women’s poverty and gender inequality in the country. Although a good deal of research focusing on the role of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in poverty alleviation in Ethiopia has been compiled, ways of maximizing the role of NGOs in alleviating women’s poverty, finding out how and why women are rendered most vulnerable to poverty and determining the underlying causes of feminization in relation to development issues, have largely gone unexamined. This study attempts to fill this gap. It has set out to do the job by inquiring into the operations of two NGO projects and their 168 women beneficiaries during the past 3-5 years in the respective NGOs’ Saving and Credit Program (SCP). All women including married, divorced, widowed and single living in the intervention areas of the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD) Ethiopia close to the French Embassy area of Addis Ababa and those living in the intervention areas of the Organization for Women in Self Employment (WISE) in the Nefas Silk, Kirkos locality of the capital were covered by the study. The study draws from clarification of concepts and analytical tools related to poverty issues as provided in various research works made by internationally recognized agencies including UNDP. Various researches undertaken by expert groups along with recognized reports they released like the 1997 Human Development Report, Human Poverty Index and others were also consulted. Data was obtained from three sources collected through focus group discussions with women SCP beneficiary groups and women committeemembers as a unit of analysis, as well as from few questionnaires and other documents. The paper also highlights the role of ACORD and WISE in alleviating women’s poverty through SCP. While acknowledging that these NGOs have indeed contributed to change the conditions of women to some extent, this research establishes that they still find it difficult to change the socio-economic status of women without solving the gender inequality prevailing at household and community levels. Research participants involved in the qualitative assessment process disclosed that alleviating women’s poverty only through SCP is unthinkable without tackling poverty problems at the household level. They further suggest that the ever deepening trends in poverty, the growing gap between the demand and supply and lack of capacity to compete in the market, reluctance of husbands to recognize the status of women as bread-winners, the unbalanced gender division of labor that burdens women with multiple family responsibilities, as well as lack of ownership by women of the means of production to expand their businesses have combined to constrain the work of NGOs in fully realizing their intended objective to alleviate women’s poverty in a sustainable way. Enough said, this study concludes that, based on the data collected from the study groups, there is a continuing threat to the efforts of NGOs to achieve their objectives. The study establishes that it is quite hard to alleviate women’s poverty just by giving loans through saving and credit schemes. The paper indicates that gender inequality currently existing within the family and in the community as a whole is quite enormous. It is felt that, no matter how intensive the NGO’s intervention in the area might be, it may still not be possible to alleviate women’s poverty in a sustainable way unless these efforts are buttressed by other interventions particularly intended to transform the family and the society by promoting gender equality and eradicating integrated household poverty.This research is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is devoted to an introductory note focusing on the background of poverty in Ethiopia, origin, role and development of NGOs in Ethiopia, policy environment and legal frameworks for NGOs, as well as statement of the problem, hypothesis, the research questions, the objective and significance of the study, definition of key terms and limitation of the study. Chapter two deals with clarification of concepts and analytical tools based on established international research and official reports that focus on development and poverty issues particularly feminization of poverty. Chapter three contains elaborate explanations about research methodology, data collection methods, data processing procedures and limitations during the study. Chapter four outlines research findings based on data collected from FGD, questionnaires and documentary evidence. The findings are presented in three categories of the role of NGOs’ in changing the life of women beneficiaries of SCP. The three categories are: Demographic characteristics and socio-economic status of the study groups; Positive socio-economic changes of NGO-led SCP on beneficiary groups; and Problems faced by women SCP beneficiaries as members, as a group and in their families. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of findings and their implications. The fifth and final chapter is devoted to conclusions and recommendations derived from the findings. List of tables, samples of questionnaires and study guides are also annexed to the paper | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/6973 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Addis Ababa University | en_US |
| dc.subject | Gender Studies | en_US |
| dc.title | The Role of NGO's in Alleviating Women's Poverty: The Case of Two Projects in Addis Abeba | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
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