Financial institutions and women’s access to credit: Implications on women’s empowerment, collectives and natural resource management

Social and gender norms influence, if not shape, women’s economic sufficiency and empowerment. Ignoring social and gender norms have resulted in conflict in households and communities, often leading to changes in the intra-household and community dynamics. This has led to negative implications, especially for women, the poor and the marginalised. Importantly, this has resulted in the failure of well-intended efforts towards sustainable management of natural resources, women’s economic empowerment and in addressing the adverse impacts of changing climatic conditions. Financial institutions, despite their good intent, have played an integral role in perpetuating such consequences. The paper highlights that women’s easy access to financial institutions at the local level have had adverse impacts on their time, well-being, solidarity and the sustainable management of natural resources. It explores the uneasy negotiations at households, and between financial institutions and women’s groups for loan repayments, how women and men use financial services, and their impacts on the notion of women’s solidarity and sufficiency. The study takes the support of examples of impacts on women’s condition and position from women-led financial circuits, gathered from secondary literature and empirical evidence from Nibuwa-Tankhuwa Watershed Management Plan in Dhankuta, Nepal. It highlights lessons on whether these institutions can synergise the adaptation measures of the local communities, suggesting areas of opportunity for gender mainstreaming within institutions to increase women’s positions through women-led financial circuits.