Developing a Global Economy

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Reflection Paper: Developing a Global Economy
The two articles, “Limits of microcredit” by Winfred Poster and Zakia Salime, and “Building community economies” by Gibson-Graham both examine the limitations of current development strategies while exploring new ways of establishing stable economies around the world.
The article by Poster and Salime is unique in that it focuses on the role that microcredit and non-governmental organizations can play in the development of economies. The authors begin by arguing that the current frameworks for implementing microcredit are not effective, especially when they are exported to the third world (Poster and Salime 190). The Moroccan Association for Solidarity without Borders (AMSSF) is a case in point, in which the adoption of microcredit implementation policies failed to achieve the intended benefits for women. Funded by USAID, the program was expected to help women get into the mainstream economy through their participation in microenterprise projects. However, the authors’ findings show that these microcredit facilities end up benefiting me than women.
Analysis
The social structure and organization of the Moroccan society and other African cultures in general does not favor the economic progress of women. The failure of AMSSF’s microcredit programs to improve women’s socioeconomic status can be attributed to the burden that gender roles in African cultures place on women. For instance, women usually play the role of housewives. Consequently, they use much of their earnings for household expenditures, while they lack more freedom and time to participate in business. In addition, the AMSSF study found out that the participation of women in microenterprise projects had the unintended negative impact of shifting domestic responsibilities to their daughters. This situation means that the programs do not improve the condition of women in general; while they help mothers to get into business, they condemn the younger generation into the same situation of domestic roles that microcredit programs are intended to change.
Whereas the funding of women empowerment projects is readily assumed to be beneficial to women’s economic advancement, the case of AMSSF shows that there is not always the case. This is because the economic empowerment of women through income generation programs places them in a position to assume the burden of proving for their families’ financial needs, thereby allowing men (their husbands) to divert their income elsewhere, such as into personal advancement projects like pursuing further education or investing in business. In this regard, it is contestable whose interests the NGOs’ women empowerment programs promote. Clearly, men are the real beneficiaries because the economic empowering of women allows husbands to avoid domestic responsibilities. Accordingly, it is necessary to reexamine ways through which donor funding should be used to truly empower women.
Third world countries also present a different economic setting from the developed countries, which hinders women’s economic growth. High levels of poverty in the t...