MICROFINANCE,

WOMENS
EMPOWERMENT AND
VENEZUELAS
BANMUJER

 Established in 2001 as the first and only

state owned and operated womens
microfinance bank
Banmujers explicit goal is to empower
women and to work towards the
creation of an economy of care
Banmujers holistic program structure
is unique in the field of microfinance

WHY BANMUJER?

CONCEPTUALIZING DEVELOPMENT AND

EMPOWERMENT
Development: A macro level process that
encompasses the improvement and/or maintenance of
a states social, political, institutional, and economic
structures.
Empowerment: A micro level process that builds on
individuals capabilities to meet their daily needs and
wants.

Developed at the National-State Scale

Practices and Reach of the program is local
scale.
- For this project my research is primarily
concerned with documenting this interaction
between the national and local scale and how
participants experience Banmujer
microfinance practices.

MULTISCALE PROJECT

The relevant question is, Have Banmujerss

microfinance practices helped to empower
impoverished women in Venezuela?

The relevant question is not does microfinance empower

women?

RESEARCH QUESTION

Has the creation of Banmujer economically

improved the daily lives of program participants?

Have Banmujer programs allowed for greater

political and social participation?

Are Banmunjer and its associated programs

sustainable?

1)

2)

3)

DETERMINANTS OF BANMUERS SUCCESS

 Non-financial services: social services, healthcare,

educational services

Banmujer Microfinance

Normatively services entail microcredit/microloans,

savings, and insurance services

Small scale financial services often offered to the

poorest populations in developing countries

Minimalist Microfinance

WHAT IS MICROFINANCE?

1)
2)
3)

The poorest of the poor

Greater economic impact on the household
Higher repayment rates

WHY TARGET WOMEN?

Group lending
model
Spill Over Effect

Economic
improvement

PROPONENTS

Lack of Control
Over Loans

Greater Debt

Minimal economic
impact

Neoliberal self
help discourse on
poverty

CRITICS

PROPONENTS AND CRITICS OF

MICROFINANCE

 Functions as an entry point for the delivery of

other social services

Explicitly aims to empower women

Group Lending Models

Subsidized through profits from PDSA (Venezuelan oil profits)

Established by Presidential decree in 2001

BANMUJER

Stage V:
Microcredit is repaid within 1-4 yrs. Eligible for an increase of 50%

Stage IV: Microcredit is distributed. Microenterprise is created.

Stage I: Contact is made between promoter and potential participant(s)

THE LENDING PROCESS

Stage III: Group applies, receives necessary training

Stage II: Identify potential partners, projects and needed resources

Mission Robison

BANMUJER

Inamujer

Madres del Barrio

Banmujer

Social Services

Group
Microenterprise

I used to have to work day and night just to make sure

we ate. Since Banmjujer, I started a sewing business
and I am able to spend time with my childrenBanmujer program participant

49% of program households have become food sufficient

Approx. 479,643 jobs created

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

 Banmujer programs provide education on the

constitution and law making process
Red Usarias de Banmujer organize and
conduct meetings and programs
Before Chavez, women where on the margins,
now women are at the center of Venezuelan
politics - Chavez critic

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

High default rates

Lack of transparency
Not profitable
Causing conflict along the Colombian border

SUSTAINABILITY OF BANMUJER

 Possibility for future research on the creation of an

economy of care and its relation to the creation of a
new Venezuelan subjectivity based on communal
cooperation, collective learning and collective
economic practices.

Without the profitability of empowerment is

Banmujer a sustainable program?

Appears some form of womens empowerment is

occurring.
Is this a microfinance institution? Or a social services
program?

CONCLUSIONS