Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Microfinance and Democratic Engagement

What is it about?

This paper presents results from a study of the comparative effects of microfinance group lending,and individual lending technologies on measures of women’s political capital in a fragile conflict-affected setting. Based on a quasi-experiment in Liberia, the two lending technologies were found to have significant effects on different measures of women’s political capital, though the effects were greater for the group lending technology than those of the individual lending. The different effects are due to the program orientation of the two lending technologies which facilitate the development of more resources for communal activism and democratic values among group lending than individual lending borrowers.

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Why is it important?

By examining these effects, this paper extends the discussion about how group-targeted economic interventions such as microfinance can be used to stimulate the political inclusion and democratic engagement of marginalized and impoverished groups with post-conflict reconstruction.