From Microfinance to Macro Change: Integrating Health Education and Microfinance to Empower Women and Reduce Poverty

This advocacy booklet calls for integration of reproductive health education with microfinance services in developing countries. It presents individual stories, case studies and findings to show the impact this combination can have on reducing poverty and improving individual lives. The booklet also offers eight concrete recommendations for action. The first section reviews the links between economic poverty, poor health, and inequality. The next explores the effectiveness of microfinance as a poverty reduction strategy. The third section shows how combining microfinance with reproductive health education can yield greater benefits. The final section offers recommendations for promoting and expanding this strategic combination.

Recommendations:

"Development agencies, governments and donors can focus on eight actions to enhance their contributions toward the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] through integrating reproductive health education with microfinance programs:

1. Direct significant financial resources to microfinance organizations - those whose work revolves around outreach to the poor and poorest, a focus on women, and achievement of financial self-sufficiency - explicitly for the integration of reproductive health education, along with other health topics.
2. Promote combining reproductive health education and microfinance to other development bodies, governments and donors by disseminating this document, hosting briefings, and creating other advocacy tools.
3. Support sustainable microfinance for the very poor as a primary strategy for achieving the MDGs through declarations, presentations and publications.
4. Advocate for and fund evaluation efforts to assess the impact of integrated reproductive health education and microfinance services on reproductive health outcomes for poor families.
5. Identify, collaborate with and support institutions - both practitioners and international technical assistance providers - that offer experience and competencies for the combination of reproductive health education with microfinance.
6. Organize donor symposiums on the topic featuring leaders from a variety of institutions, such as BRAC, Grameen Bank, Pro Mujer, CRECER and Freedom from Hunger.
7. Capitalize on the existing momentum created by the Microcredit Summit Campaign's integration workshops by promoting and supporting the continuation of workshops and other mechanisms for disseminating integration strategies.
8. Sponsor trips for donor agencies, journalists, and parliamentarians to visit leading microfinance institutions that integrate sustainable microfinance for the very poor with reproductive and other health education."