About My Research
The study examines the transformative role of microcredit in enhancing women's empowerment and factors inhibiting its access and utilisation in Kabale district, Uganda. Women’s empowerment, the ability for individuals to make life choices and a multidimensional construct is a critical strategy to getting women out of poverty. Kabale is a patriarchal society, with high population, limited land that is fragmented, highly cultivated and degraded hence, low food production. This makes it difficult for women to fulfil their traditional role of food provision and devising alternative means of survival. Microcredit has become a potential tool providing women with subsidised loans, transforming their lives and of their households socially, economically and politically. Employing a descriptive, explanatory, and cross-sectional research design, the study integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches to provide a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. A survey of 300 women, 150 microcredit clients and 150 non-clients, 30 in depth interviews of women clients, six focus group discussions of mixed men and women clients and nonclients, and six case studied of women clients on lived experiences are conducted using a case of Lyamujungu Saving and credit Cooperative Society, in rural Kabale district, South Western Uganda. Data is analysed using software tools. A combination of empowerment theory and capability approach are used to address the social, economic, political and decision-making dimensions of empowerment under study. The findings enable microcredit institutions and policymakers design strategies that address rural women’s specific needs and also contribute to the body of knowledge.