De las prácticas alternativas a la teoría alternativa. Mujeres, Servicios financieros y reducción de la pobreza en Honduras
(2012) 2012 Congress of the Latin American Studies Association — Location: San Francisco, California (23.May.2012)
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- Since late 1990's, micro-credit have been advocated by development agencies as a key tool in the fight against poverty. It is argued that along with poverty reduction, the targeting of poor women by financial services can contribute to their empowerment and consequently to gender equality. Beyond practical and efficiency arguments, the success of microcredits, as a policy tool, are better understood if considered in relation to mainstream conceptualization of development problems and solutions. This paper aims to appeal to an actor oriented approach to identify autonomous rural women's financial practices. It draws on critical development theory and feminist criticism of the empowerment concept. The identified financial practices are then contrasted with the official microcredit program driven by the Family Allowance Program (PRAF), a component of a poverty reduction strategy. By comparing methodologies, organizational forms and logics of action, conclusions are drawn related to planning, implementation and evaluation of micro-credits and development programs in general. This paper seeks to contribute to the conceptual development debate as well as questioning contemporary social policies and the relevance of universally applied solutions to poverty. Concrete ideas for field interventions are proposed. Above all, the implications of alternative practices for development thinking are exposed. This analysis is based on secondary sources, semi-oriented interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2003 and 2005, in a rural community of northwestern Honduras.
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Bahr Caballero, K. (2012). De las prácticas alternativas a la teoría alternativa. Mujeres, Servicios financieros y reducción de la pobreza en Honduras. 2012 Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, San Francisco, California. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/43667