Contribution of women development fund to poverty reduction in Geita District, Tanzania
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Date
2010
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Despite the effort made by the government to create good environment for women to
access credit for income generation to reduce poverty, reduction of poverty through
Women Development Fund (WDF) is not impressive. Therefore, the main objective of this
study was to determine the contribution of Women Development Fund to poverty
reduction. Specifically, the study was meant to determine the amount of capital and costs
for various income generating activities, determine the gross and net revenues from various
income generating activities (IGAs), compare the income from IGAs done with credit and
other activities done without credit between women who received credit and those who did
not, ascertain the impact of some credit factors on overall income, and identify constraints
facing income generating activities supported by WDF. Data were collected from a sample
of 128 respondents, 64 of whom had received credit and 64 were those who had not.
Simple random sampling was used to obtain the desired sample. Data were analysed using
the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Multiple regression model was used to
establish the relationship between factors influencing women’s income and gross margin
tool was also used to determine the gross margins of women with and without credit in
IGAs. The results showed that the average amounts of capital value and costs for various
IGAs for recipients and non-recipients were 40 381 57 and 35 881 501 respectively. The
amount of capital value of recipients before and after credit were 34 535 750 and 40 381
571 respectively. The average net margin was Tsh 10 530 150 under use of credit while
non-credit users obtained an average net margin of Tsh 12 643 136 per annum. The amount
of credit received had positive impact on poverty reduction (P=0.062) and it statistically
insignificant (p>0.1). Based on the results it is concluded that access to credit by women
has positive impact on household welfare. Therefore, it is recommended that policy makers
should re-formulate policies that are in favour of WDF and increase the budgetary fund in
order to increase the amount of credit provided to women for economic activities.
Description
MASTERS DISSERTATION
Keywords
Women development fund, Poverty reduction, Geita District, Tanzania