Can self-help group programs improve women’s empowerment? A systematic review

ABSTRACT

This mixed-methods systematic review focuses on the impact of women’s self-help groups (SHGs) on women’s economic, social, psychological, and political empowerment. Both governmental and non-governmental institutions spend formidable resources facilitating SHGs in low-and middle-income countries in South Asia and other developing countries, under the premise that access to microfinance, training, and group support can enhance women’s empowerment. We found that women’s economic SHGs have positive effects on economic and political empowerment, women’s mobility, and women’s control over family planning. The estimated effect sizes range from 0.06–0.41 standardised mean differences. We did not find evidence for positive effects of SHGs on psychological empowerment. The qualitative research further suggests that the positive effects of SHGs on empowerment run through mechanisms that are associated with familiarity in handling money, independence in financial decision-making, solidarity, social networks, and respect from the household and other community members. However, the included evaluations often did not include sufficient information about the specifics of the activities that were implemented by the SHGs. As a result, it remains unclear which of the various SHG models are most effective. Finally, our triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative findings indicates that SHGs do not have adverse consequences for domestic violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-help group
• women’s empowerment
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The findings of this review were first reported in a Campbell Systematic Review titled ‘Economic Self-Help Group Programs for Improving Women’s Empowerment: A Systematic Review’. This paper summarises the conceptual framework, methodology, and results of that review.

2. From the study in Odisha, we estimated an average ICC of 0.057 for empowerment outcomes (0.053 for social empowerment, 0.068 for psychological empowerment, 0.017 for economic empowerment, and 0.088 for measures of intimate partner violence). We used the average value of the ICC of 0.057 for the correction of the standard errors of political empowerment outcomes for which we did not have an estimate of the ICC.

3. We conducted meta-analyses with and without studies that measure women’s bargaining power for sex workers. For this group bargaining power was measured through questions about the decision-making power about the number of clients for the sex worker. The meta-analyses with and without studies that measure women’s bargaining power for sex workers do not reveal different results.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).

Notes on contributors

Carinne Brody

Carinne Brody, DrPH, MA, MPH, is Assistant Professor and Chair of Global Health at Touro University California. She received her doctorate from UC Berkeley and her master’s degrees from Columbia University. Her current research is focused on improving access to sexual and reproductive health for high-risk groups such as sex workers in Cambodia. She has been involved with programmes and research for governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as foundations in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Haiti, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Cambodia and India.

Thomas de Hoop

Thomas de Hoop, PhD, is a senior researcher at the American Institute for Research in Washington, DC, USA. Dr De Hoop has 9 years of experience coordinating evaluations of development programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. He is an expert in using theories of change for rigorous impact evaluation.

Martina Vojtkova

Martina Vojtkova is Research Director in the Evaluation team where she leads the design and execution of experimental and quasi-experimental design and feasibility studies. She also leads NatCen’s systematic review and evidence mapping work and the design of other evidence synthesis projects. In her prior roles, Martina led research projects evaluating the effectiveness of government policies and programmes implemented in low- and middle-income countries in the areas of education, poverty reduction, agriculture, public health and women’s empowerment.

Ruby Warnock

Ruby Warnock, MPH, is a project coordinator and research analyst working on global reproductive health projects at the University of California, San Francisco. She received her master’s degree from Touro University California. She has a passion for working towards sexual and reproductive health and addressing health access and equity issues for underserved populations.

Megan Dunbar

Megan Dunbar, DrPH, MPH, is Vice President of Research and Social Policy at Pangaea Global AIDS. Dr Dunbar’s background and expertise is in designing and evaluating interventions that address the social and economic factors which increase HIV vulnerability, such as gender-based violence and inequities in educational and economic opportunities for girls and women. Formerly with the Women’s Global Health Imperative at the University of California, San Francisco, and RTI International, Megan has spent nearly a decade leading initiatives in southern and eastern Africa.

Padmini Murthy

Padmini Murthy, MD, MPH, MS, CHES, Associate Professor in Health Policy and Management and Family and Community Medicine and Global Health Director, is a physician and an activist who did her residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She has practiced medicine and public health for the past 25 years in various countries. She has been working in various arenas of the health care industry, including the private sector. She has a Master’s in Public Health and a Master’s in Management from New York University (NYU).

Shari L. Dworkin

Shari L. Dworkin, PhD, MS, is Professor in the UCSF Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS). As of 1 July 2014, she is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the UCSF School of Nursing. She is Affiliated Faculty at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS). Dr Dworkin is a founding member of the UCGHI Center of Expertise (COE) on Women’s Health and Empowerment. Dr Dworkin received a BS in business from Penn State, an MA in Sociology from the University of Maryland, a PhD in Sociology from the University of Southern California and an MS in Biostatistics from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in HIV infection at the Columbia University HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies from 2002 to 2005. Dr Dworkin’s research focuses on the intersection of gender-specific relations and HIV prevention.