Assessment of the effects of group lending on livelihood security of women borrowers of SIKAP BIDANI Development Foundation, Incorporated in Laguna, 2014

Date

6-2015

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Bates M. Bathan

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the effects of group lending on livelihood security of women borrowers of SIKAP BIDANI Development Foundation, Incorporated in Laguna, 2014. Specifically, it aimed to: (1) describe the SIKAP BIDANI group lending policies (2) determine the credit utilization of the women borrowers (3) compare the household food security, economic security, educational security, health security, and empowerment of the women borrowers before and after participation in group lending (4) analyze the net cash income of the agriculture-related businesses and loan repayment rate of the women borrowers (5) assess the factors affecting the loan repayment rate and livelihood security of women borrowers and (6) identify the problems encountered by the women borrowers and SIKAP BIDANI Foundation, Inc. and provide policy recommendations or suggest microfinance innovations to address these problems. SIKAP BIDANI adopts a modified Grameen model. Only women from poor families are eligible to enter and form a group. A group is composed of 10-14 members which can still function with 5 members. They are required to undergo a 3-day rigid compulsory seminar and then pay a membership fee of PhP 100.00. Loan payments are done on a weekly basis with an interest rate of 3% per week. For easier screening of women borrowers, SIKAP BIDANI implemented the one by one recruitment where new members are required to seek the approval of all members of their desired group. Women borrowers engaged in agricultural production and food processing businesses have better credit utilization than those engaged in agricultural retailing businesses due to the higher capital requirements of these businesses. However, the latter have generated higher net cash income than the former. There was also a high loan repayment rate of 99.7% attributed to the weekly collection of loan payments. On the other hand, no correlation has been found between credit utilization and net cash income. Among the five livelihood security domains, food security, economic security, health security, and women empowerment were found to be significantly different before and after participation in group lending. The overall livelihood security of the women borrowers was also significantly higher after their participation. Results of the Tobit regression analysis revealed that age, household size, and perceived contribution of SIKAP BIDANI to livelihood security were the significant determinants of overall livelihood security. Problems encountered by women borrowers in the group lending program included: (1) loan default/late payments (2) free riders (3) absence/late in center meetings (4) lack of capital and (5) lack of support services. On the part of SIKAP BIDANI, the problems were: (1) loan default (2) over indebtedness of their borrowers (3) resigning group members and (4) difficulty in staff recruitment, current staff attitudes and congested workplace. To address these problems, the following were recommended: (1) improvement of attendance in center meetings, and (2) provision of support services.

Language

English

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

Call Number

Thesis

Document Type

Thesis

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