Microfinance and Violence against Women and Girls

This event presents a new systematic review on the effects of microfinance programming on violence against women and girls (VAWG) in low- and middle-income settings (LMICs) from evaluation research spanning 2015-2023, conducted as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale (What Works II) initiative. 

Economic empowerment, including via microfinance, is a longstanding strategy to enhance women’s health and safety. Past impact reviews have identified mixed and conflicting results on the impact of women’s economic empowerment (WEE) on violence against women and girls (VAWG). Many have recommended the inclusion of gender transformative programming to complement economic programming. Recent reviews include diverse economic programmatic approaches (i.e. livelihoods, microfinance, cash transfers), contributing to mixed findings.

Results are complex: microfinance can reduce VAWG in some cases, but not all. Importantly, adding supplementary programming to microfinance did not consistently enhance the potential of microfinance to reduce VAWG. The event will delve into results, discuss the review’s methodological strategy for assessing impact and unpack next steps for research and practice. Speakers feature WhatWorks leadership and the cross-national study team, followed by invited reflections.