TÖMEN, Gülfem Akdeniz Üniversitesi - İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi - Kamu Yönetimi Programı, Turkey , SARVAN, Fulya Akdeniz Üniversitesi - İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi - İşletme Bölümü, Turkey

Micro-finance Programs Impact on Women’s Poverty and Entrepreneurship: a Survey and a Cooperation Model Proposal

15317

The purpose of this study was to question to what extent micro-finance programs, expected to bring a solution to women’s poverty and to improve women’s entrepreneurship, realize their objectives. To this purpose the literature on women’s poverty is briefly reviewed, and the quantitative and qualitative findings of a field study of the women who used micro-credits from the Turkish Grameen Microfinance Program (TGMP) in Antalya are reported. The field study showed that the great majority of the 67 interviewed women lived together with their families, between hunger and the poverty level, mostly in rented houses, having difficulty in buying goods for their basic needs. They used micro-credits for producing hand-made goods at home, or for selling ready made goods, and the micro-credits used did not suffice to save these women from poverty, nor did using micro-credits turn them into entrepreneurs. In addition to presenting the results obtained from the field study, a Cooperation Model for Developing Women’s Entrepreneurship is presented.

343

Micro , credit , Women’s Poverty , Women’s Entrepreneurship , Turkey Grameen Microfinance Program (TGMP)

Mediterranean Journal Of Humanities

369