Gender Issues and Social Change: Evaluating Programme Impact in Rural Bangladesh

In rural Bangladesh many Non-Governmental Organisations run development programmes through which they aim to alleviate poverty. Host of these organisations have set themselves economic, social, gender and other objectives. Despite the fact that these organisations in principle do not prioritize economic,objectives over the other objectives, it has been noted that economic aspects are more emphasized in evaluations than social ones. In this study a range of social development dimensions have been explored. A variety of indicators were developed to investigate how these development dimensions could be evaluated at the village level and in particular how programme impact could be evaluated. Many of the indicators were derived from people's opinions about certain social issues, most of which concern women's lives. Social data are often of a qualitative nature, which makes evaluation difficult, especially when two sets of data are to be compared. In this study the qualitative data obtained for several indicators were transformed into quantitative data. The research showed that many of the indicators chosen, and the way in which they were used, indeed have potential for social and gender evaluation. Ways in which they might be modified and further developed as an evaluative tool are suggested

Ampliación de la cobertura de microfinanzas en el área rural del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia: un diagnóstico cualitativo de los esfuerzos actuales y desafíos

Incluye BibliografíaEl presente trabajo de investigación, es una exploración que busca, sobre todo, poder señalar los posibles caminos a seguir en Bolivia en el desarrollo de las microfinanzas en general y en el área rural en particular. Se basó en entrevistas y visitas de campo y se realizó entre julio y agosto de 2008. Dos fueron los ejes en los que se movió esta investigación: 1.-El rol de las microfinanzas para combatir la pobreza.2.-Tratar de descubrir como lograr que las instituciones microfinancieras presten servicios financieros productivos en el área rural. Asimismo, detalla las posibles acciones para:Ampliar la cobertura financiera en el área ruralDestacar los factores y desafíos que influyen para que las instituciones microfinancieras presten servicios financieros en el área rura