Female Empowerment through Village Savings and Loan Associations in Rwanda Associations in Rwanda - Diva-portal.org
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Female Empowerment
through Village Savings and Loan
Associations in Rwanda
Associations in Rwanda
Bachelor’s Thesis, STS, 15 hp
Department of Business Studies
Uppsala University
Spring Semester of 2021
Date of Submission: 2021-06-02
Mikaela Eriksson
Ellen Kyhle
Supervisor: Susanne Åberg
Acknowledgements There are many people who have been involved in making this thesis project possible. First of all, we would like to thank our supervisor, Susanne Åberg, for your advice and guidance. Secondly, a big thank you to everyone at Vi Agroforestry in Kigali for your time, effort and invaluable guidance in assisting us during every step of the way, and for helping us make it possible to carry out our research digitally when our planned field study had to be cancelled. Lastly, we are very grateful for all the things we have learned from our interview participants. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and insights with us!
Abstract The village-based microfinance approach Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) has been imple- mented in developing countries for three decades, and is found to be an effective tool in alleviating poverty and facilitating access to financial services in rural areas. This study, done in collaboration with Vi Agroforestry, aimed to investigate the impact of VSLA activities on female empowerment in Rwanda, and more specifically, how women’s access to and control over assets have been affected by VSLA participation. The term ‘female empowerment’ refers to the process by which women gain control and power over their own life situations and their ability to make strategic choices, that is, the capacity to turn choices into desired actions and outcomes. A qualitative methodology has been used, where the main data collection consisted of six individual interviews with VSLA staff responsible for implementing, monitoring and evaluating VSLA groups in six different districts, and two focus group interviews with female VSLA participants in two different districts, carried out during April and May 2021. The findings show that VSLA participation significantly accelerates the process of female empowerment in both household and community domains for women in Rwanda and that VSLA is an efficient first step in moving from a marginalised position in the society. However, women are still in many cases restricted from claiming all potential benefits from VSLA participation by structures that dictate normative gender roles and power structures. The findings highlight the importance of continued gender-related and financial training in order to further increase female access to and control over resources through VSLAs. Keywords: Female Empowerment, Village Savings and Loan Associations, VSLA, Microfinance, Vi Agroforestry, Rwanda.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Purpose and Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Theoretical Framework 4
2.1 Empowerment - The Ability to Make Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Measuring Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2.1 Opportunity Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2.2 Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2.3 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2.4 Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3 Domains of Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 Analytical Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3 Research Methodology 10
3.1 Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1.1 Choice of Interview Respondents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1.2 Interview Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.1.3 Development of Interview Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1.4 Practical Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1.5 Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1.6 Summary of Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.3 The Trustworthiness of The Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.4 Ethical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4 Female Empowerment and VSLAs in Rwanda 18
4.1 Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.2 Women in Rwanda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.2.1 Laws, Rules and Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.2.2 Norms and Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.3 Partner Staff Interview Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.4 Focus Group Interview Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5 Analysis 35
5.1 Opportunity Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.2 Economic Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.3 Social Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.4 Human Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.5 Psychological Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.6 Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.7 Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6 Conclusions 42
6.1 Limitations of The Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6.2 Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
References 43
Appendices 49
Appendix I. The VSLA Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Appendix II. Interview Themes and Corresponding Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Appendix III. Interview Questions for Initial Interview with Vi Agroforestry . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Appendix IV. Interview Questions for Staff at the Partner Organisations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Appendix V. Interview Questions for Female VSLA Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Appendix VI. Background Information About the Female VSLA Participants . . . . . . . . . . 59
Appendix VII. Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
1 Introduction
Microfinance projects are often described as an effective tool for decreasing poverty in developing countries.
Microfinance refers to small loans, savings, and insurance services to financially and socially vulnerable
sections of society (Kaur & Kaur, 2017). In the last couple of years, several village-based approaches
to microfinance have emerged to further ease constraints on access to financial services. One of these
approaches is Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), which is an informal mechanism for
borrowing and saving that does not require ongoing administrative or financial support from founding
organisations (Brannen & Sheehan-Connor, 2016). The first VSLA was launched in 1991 in Niger by
the humanitarian organisation CARE, and today the VSLA concept is active in 51 countries across the
world, representing more than seven million members in more than 330 000 groups with an overwhelming
majority of women (CARE, 2019). VSLAs have proved to help overcome the difficulties for people living
in suburbs and rural areas to access and use financial services, as the model enables an autonomous and
self-managing approach to saving and loaning. Therefore, it has the ability to reach the very poor and rural
population better than formal, centralised microfinance institutions (Nyamweya, Ndungutse & Ngarambe,
2020; Kashaija Musinguzi, 2016; Singh, 2013). A VSLA consists of a group of people, usually no more
than 20 to 30, who pool their own savings into a shared account and allow members to take small individual
loans from these savings. Meetings are usually held biweekly, and all transactions are carried out in front
of all members during these meetings (Allen & Staehle, 2006; VSL Associates, n.d.). See a visualisation of
the VSLA savings cycle in Appendix I.
One actor active in establishing the VSLA approach in East Africa, as one means of fighting poverty, is
the Swedish non-governmental development organisation Vi Agroforestry. One of the countries that they
operate in is Rwanda, where VSLA programs have been initiated since 2005 (Vi Agroforestry, 2020). In
Rwanda, poverty is one of the most crucial problems as the country has one of the lowest GDP:s per capita in
the world (World Bank Group, 2019a). Systemic barriers hinder access to financial services for impoverished
people in rural areas of the country (AFR, 2017), which in turn affects rural development by preventing
households from engaging in non-agricultural businesses (Ayalew Ali, Deininger & Duponchel, 2014). For
the rural population, 42.5 percent experience several forms of credit constraints (Papias & Ganesan, 2010).
Among impoverished people, women are one of the most underprivileged and vulnerable groups (Swain
& Wallentin, 2009), and constitute the majority of those who are financially excluded in Rwanda (65%)
(Katabarwa, 2020). One way of empowering women is by giving them access to microloans, for example
through VSLA activities. The provision of small loans to poor people has been shown to be a useful tool
for alleviating poverty, and poverty tends to be a very strong indicator of female disempowerment (Bercaw,
2012). The term ‘female empowerment’ refers to the process by which women gain control and power over
their own life situations and their ability to make strategic choices (United Nations Statistics Division, 2015);
that is, the capacity to turn choices into desired actions and outcomes (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005).
By giving women control over and responsibility for financial activities, the village savings and loans
approach to microfinance has the aim to enable female empowerment (Maclean, 2012). Poor women are
often excluded from household decision-making because of financial restrictions that are derived from
1
traditional gender roles. This, in turn, leads to a limited capability to partake in income-generating activities
which often forces them to rely on male family members (Bercaw, 2012). Participation in informal
but structured savings mechanisms like VSLA groups may therefore be especially beneficial for women
(Brannen & Sheehan-Connor, 2016), providing them with tools to advance financially, socially, physically
and emotionally (Bercaw, 2012). It has been argued that an empowering aspect of village savings activities
is to put the management of the banking activities in the members’ hands (Simanowitz & Walter, 2002), and
that women’s engagement in VSLA activities improves their control of their environment, their self-esteem
and their confidence. Taking responsibility for the economy is associated with autonomy and empowerment
(Maclean, 2012).
Porter (2016) has shown how the allocation of resources within a household is affected by the borrower’s
gender. The findings suggest that a greater female impact on decisions within the household is enabled by
increased borrowing by women, compared to solely male financial borrowing. In contrast, other studies
have shown that while access to financial services may improve women’s empowerment through financial
decision-making and income generation, it does not necessarily lead to greater control over those resources
(Kulb et al., 2015). Ahlin & Townsend (2007) and Emran, Morshed & Stiglitz (2021) further discuss how
women may not have full control over the use of the loans and may be pressured to make repayments,
creating a larger debt liability, which might lead to a decreased bargaining power. Maclean (2012) has also
investigated the relationship between risk, responsibility and empowerment. She argues that besides the
benefits of village loans there are also risks, for example repayment difficulties. It is therefore of interest
to look further into if and how VSLA activities actually can contribute to financial, decisional and other
aspects of female empowerment in the context of our study.
Operating with a self-sustainable approach, VSLAs have potential to improve financial access in more
remote areas, but it is not clear exactly what impact these groups have on female empowerment (Brannen &
Sheehan-Connor, 2016). Regarding VSLAs in Rwanda, Katabarwa (2020) states that women are constrained
from full participation and benefits from VSLAs, due to inequitable power relations and normative gender
roles. Gendered social norms in Rwanda determine how borrowing, saving and investing differs among
male and female VSLA members, and how decisions on loans and assets purchased with the loans are made
(CARE Rwanda, 2012). However, many initiatives and programs are being implemented in order to enhance
gender equality and women’s empowerment in Rwanda (Katabarwa, 2020), but complete evidence on what
effect these initiatives have in relation to VSLAs and evidence on prevailing challenges with achieving
positive impacts through VSLAs are lacking (Habamenshi, Habumuremyi & Mvunabo, 2019). Therefore,
our study can contribute to the currently limited knowledge base that exists of the relationship between
female empowerment and VSLA activities.
1.1 Purpose and Research Questions
The purpose with this study is to investigate what impact savings groups and microfinance activities have
on the empowerment of women in a developing country. This will be done by analysing the effect of Village
Savings and Loan Association (VLSA) activities in connection to Vi Agroforestry in Rwanda. The following
2
research question and sub-question has been formulated in order to fulfill this purpose:
• What is the impact of VSLA activities on female empowerment in Rwanda?
◦ How have women’s access to and control over assets been affected by VSLA participation?
32 Theoretical Framework
Female empowerment is a multi-dimensional phenomenon and has been defined in many different ways.
Exactly what female empowerment is and the best way to measure it has been debated as the term is
being used more and more frequently in multiple contexts (Carr, 2016). For this study, it is necessary
to define relevant dimensions of female empowerment to be able to operationalise interview themes and
draw conclusions from the data. Kabeer (1999) defines empowerment as a process that entails change.
Malhotra and Schuler (2005) also emphasise that empowerment should be seen as a process, as opposed to
a condition or state of being. More specifically, female empowerment can be described as a process that
strives to change gender norms, reach gender equality and systematically transform institutions supporting
patriarchy (Kulb et al., 2016). The expansion of assets and abilities of impoverished people to participate
in and influence decision-making, negotiate, take control over resources and hold institutions accountable
to deliver quality services that affect their lives is also a way to define empowerment (Narayan, 2002; van
Eerdewijk et al., 2017). Bercaw (2012) further suggests that being empowered should imply that women
have the freedom to earn their own income and make their own financial decisions, having the ability to
participate and engage in social activities, feel self-confident as well as valued in their household, and be
free from abuse of both physical and emotional nature. Mosedale (2005) argues that while third parties can
create favorable conditions and facilitate the process of becoming empowered, they cannot directly empower
an individual. Ultimately, an individual can only become empowered if they choose to claim it. While there
is no distinct, agreed-upon definition of the process of empowerment, the most frequently used definitions
all include the action of taking control over assets and processes of decision-making that can influence the
quality of life, taking into account both relational and personal characteristics (Carr, 2016).
2.1 Empowerment - The Ability to Make Choices
Kabeer (1999), Mosedale (2005) and Alsop and Heinsohn (2005) discuss the ability to make choices as
one way of thinking about power, where the concept of empowerment is bound up with the condition
of disempowerment: being denied choice implies being disempowered. Having power does not imply
being empowered: it describes a static condition, and how that condition was achieved is not indicated.
Empowerment refers to the movement from a marginalised position in society to a position of more freedom
and the ability to make choices (Carr, 2016). That is, increased capabilities of making strategic life choices
in a context that previously prevented this opportunity (Kabeer, 1999). Strategic life choices are those
decisions that have great influence over a person’s life path, and that further affect that individual’s ability
to make autonomous choices (Malhotra & Schuler, 2005).
2.2 Measuring Empowerment
To be able to monitor and measure empowerment, it is important to have a clear definition of the concept
and to define a framework that both identifies indicators of empowerment and links them to development
outcomes (Narayan, 2005). Various attempts have been made to reduce the concept of empowerment
into measurable components, and the following sections will discuss similarities and differences among
4previously used definitions, and which definition this paper will apply.
Kabeer (1999) identifies three different kinds of levels where empowerment can take place, namely ‘deeper’
levels, intermediate levels and immediate levels. Deeper levels refer to hidden structures of gender and/or
class, that affect the distribution of power and resources in a society and reproduce it over time. The
intermediate levels constitute institutional rules and regulations which influence personal, economic, social
and political aspects of life. Lastly, immediate levels refer to three interconnected dimensions: individual
resources, agency and achievements (see Figure 1). These three dimensions incorporate the ability to
actually exercise choice, where resources (both human, social and economic) are seen as pre-conditions
for agency (processes of decision making), leading to achievements (well-being outcomes). This ability
to exercise choice is also exceedingly affected by previously mentioned deeper and intermediate levels of
societal structures and rules and regulations. Therefore, a holistic approach to empowerment is important to
understand how the process of change takes place in different levels and dimensions and how these impact
each other: only one dimension in isolation cannot describe the empowerment process by itself.
’Deeper’ Levels: Structural relations of gender and/or class
Intermediate Levels: Institutional rules and regulations
Immediate Levels: Individual resources, agency and achievements
Figure 1: Levels of Empowerment (Kabeer, 1999).
Another perspective that has been highly used, particularly by the World Bank1, is presented by Alsop
and Heinsohn (2005). They provide an analytic framework for monitoring and measuring empowerment
processes and outcomes, where the capacity to make effective choices is primarily influenced by agency and
opportunity structure. Similar to Kabeer (1999), agency is defined as an individual’s ability to envisage
options and make meaningful choices, and resources and achievements are included in the notion of agency
as the indicators and outcomes of agency. Opportunity structure refers to the institutional context in which
choice is made, in accordance with Kabeer’s (1999) deeper and intermediate levels. Together, these two
factors are hypothesised to be associated with different degrees of empowerment, which can be measured
by assessing (1) the existence of choice, (2) the actual exercise of the choice and (3) if the action results in
the desired outcome (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005).
2.2.1 Opportunity Structure
Further explained, the opportunity structure includes regulatory frameworks, laws, structures and norms
governing people’s behaviour (Alsop, Bertelsen & Holland, 2006). People live their lives in the context of
structures (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017) - that is, the presence of laws, formal and informal rules, cultural
and social norms and societal structures of gender and class, which all contribute to govern behaviour and
expressions of agency, meaning whether a person or a group has access to resources and if these persons
can use these resources to accomplish desired outcomes (Alsop, Bertelsen & Holland, 2006; van Eerdewijk
1The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to middle- and low-income countries for the purpose
of ending extreme poverty within a generation and boosting shared prosperity (World Bank Group, 2019b).
5et al., 2017). Beyond the presence of laws and rules, the ability to exercise agency is also affected by
the actual knowledge of these legal rights and the existence of support for exercising rights (Malhotra &
Schuler, 2005). There must exist an opportunity structure that allows for an individual to translate their
resources into effective agency, in order for them to become empowered (Alsop, Bertelsen & Holland, 2006).
Edwards (2015, p. 5) states that change in the lives of women and girls “is not possible without changing
the underlying structures of constraint”.
Opportunity structures both enable and constrain women’s freedom to choose and to make informed choices.
In patriarchal societies, gender norms and ideologies justify and maintain male privilege, gender inequalities
and disempowerment of women, and social norms shape womens’ decision-making power in the household
and in the community (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017). This can for example take the form of women having
difficulties to balance paid and unpaid household work, as the care burden of house work and child care
often are seen as normal responsibilities for women under prevailing cultural norms in patriarchal societies.
This, together with patriarchal gender norms in general, affect the extent to which men regard women as
equal to them and thereby continue to allow certain positions to only be held by men, and restrict women
from engaging in community activities as well as from holding leadership- and decision-making positions
(Katabarwa, 2020).
In this paper, the notion of opportunity structure will be used to include both the deeper and the intermediate
levels in Kabeer’s (1999) framework. Moreover, the immediate levels identified by Kabeer (1999) including
the three dimensions agency, resources and achievements (see Figure 1), will be used to examine how the
empowerment process is affected when strengthening these components. Figure 2 clarifies how the two
frameworks are combined.
Figure 2: Clarification of how the frameworks of Kabeer (1999) and Alsop and Heinsohn (2005) are
combined in this paper.
2.2.2 Agency
Agency is similarly defined by many scholars (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005; Kabeer, 1999; Narayan, 2005), as
the actual exercise of choice. It refers to the ability to envisage options, plan for the future, define goals, act
toward achieving them and thereby make meaningful choices, and it encompasses the motivation, meaning
and purpose behind the choice. It can be described as the processes of negotiation and decision-making
required in order for women to use resources effectively (Cheston & Kuhn, 2001). According to Kabeer
(1999), one of the most frequently used methods to measure agency involves asking women about their
6role in relation to specific household decisions such as purchases, their children’s education and whether or
not the woman should work. Katabarwa (2020) adds that women might have the ability to exercise certain
choices, while not having complete agency. For example, when female decision-making is increased, it
often tends to concern decisions of little consequence or which were already assigned to women by the
gendered division of roles, such as those related to domestic improvements and household consumption,
while decisions about larger-scale investments and major assets are still performed mainly by men (Kabeer,
1999; Katabarwa, 2020).
Increased agency can have the benefit of making poverty reduction programs such as VSLA groups more
effective (Kulb et al., 2016). Alsop, Bertelsen and Holland (2006) emphasise the fact that agency itself
is not synonymous with empowerment. They mean that even if the capacity to make a choice exists, the
opportunity structure might prevent agency from being used effectively.
2.2.3 Resources
Alsop and Heinsohn (2005) and Kabeer (2005) describe resources as indicators of agency, and refer to them
as the conditions under which choices are made. If a woman’s access to resources is dependent on a member
of the family, her ability to make strategic choices is limited (Kabeer, 1999). According to Kabeer (1999),
whether someone has access to resources is in itself not sufficient for that person to become empowered.
What matters is if certain choices regarding that resource are conceivable and therefore has any impact on
agency. A way of operationalising this could be to examine if control over resources has been gained, as
well as future claims to the different types of resources, not only access to these.
Kabeer (1999) divides resources into economic, human and social resources and Carr (2016) divides
them into political/legal, economic/entrepreneurial, social/cultural and psychological/emotional. Similarly,
Alsop and Heinsohn (2005) describe resources in terms of financial, material, human, social, informational,
psychological and organisational assets, while Malhotra and Schuler (2005) divide them into the categories
economic, social and cultural, legal, political and psychological. For the purpose of this thesis and to broadly
capture all of these aspects, resources have been divided into economic, human, social and psychological in
the operationalisation of the theory.
Economic resources, according to Kabeer (2018), include women’s access to financial assets, capital
and owned land. Additionally, Malhotra and Schuler (2005) include control over income, as well as
access to employment, credit and markets as indicators of economic resources. To truly have power over
these resources, the woman also needs to be included in decision-making processes regarding household
spending, how money is distributed within the household, and in money-generating activities (Katabarwa,
2020).
Educational background, ‘soft’ skills (such as communication skills) and ‘hard’ skills (such as farming-
related skills) and all other gained knowledge are part of the individual’s human resources (Kabeer, 2018).
Regarding educational background, Kabeer (2018) states that a lack of formal education is a restricting
factor in an individual’s human capital, constraining women from accessing resources and translating these
into improvements in livelihood outcomes.
7Social resources are constituted by all personal networks and other relationships that might be an asset in
improving the individual’s situation (Kabeer, 2018). Malhotra and Schuler (2005) also include freedom of
movement, freedom from violence, participation in domestic decision-making, involvement in community
organisations, access to social networks and access to and visibility in social spaces as indicators of this
resource. The division of labour and unpaid care work are additionally part of the social resources, as it
centers on the social dynamics on the household level between women and men, similarly to the prevalence
of women in leadership and decision-making roles in organisations and businesses on a community level
(Katabarwa, 2020; van Eerdewijk et al., 2017). Collective action is when women, through their social net-
works, gain solidarity by collectively acting on their interests and common goals and mobilise their collective
power (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017), and can also be considered to be a significant social resource.
Alsop, Bertelsen and Holland (2006) discuss that although psychological resources are often disregarded
in measuring empowerment, they can have a significant impact on an individual’s agency and their ability
to transform their assets into action. If a woman lacks psychological assets, such as the capacity to envision
or a sense of self-confidence and self-esteem (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005), she may perceive her state of
disempowerment to be ‘right and proper’, as often perpetuated by her cultural context. If this state is
internalised, it is likely to lead to choices that further perpetuate this state. Malhotra and Schuler (2005)
additionally include psychological well-being and a collective awareness of injustice to the psychological
resources.
Understanding the complex interaction among resources is of importance. A person’s ability to make
meaningful choices can be affected by access to a single resource, such as ownership of land. Access to a
certain resource can also affect the endowment of another resource (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005). For example
new knowledge, a human resource, possibly gained from VSLA participation, might improve the ability
to visualise alternative options, a psychological resource. In this case, several resources contribute to a
person’s capacity to make strategic choices. Data gathering on a range of resources can therefore test for the
effects of one resource on another as well as their effects on empowerment outcomes.
2.2.4 Achievements
Achievements can be likened to the ’outcome’ of choices enabled by resources, agency and opportunity
structure and are referred to as the consequences of choices that reflect how the activity has increased the
capacity to change the existing power structures that subordinate women (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005; Kabeer,
1999; Mahmud, 2003). Examples are financial autonomy, reported sharing of roles and decision-making
and equality in marriage (Kabeer, 1999). This dimension is mainly concerned with the measurements of
the results of empowerment.
2.3 Domains of Empowerment
While using previously discussed dimensions to frame analysis of empowerment is helpful, it leads to the
question of whether an individual’s capacity to make strategic choices varies depending on in which domain
the person is acting (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005). A crucial part of measuring empowerment is therefore
8awareness of the context (Carr, 2016). Carr (2016) defines a framework of three different socio-spatial
domains that empowerment can be measured within: household, livelihood and community. Including these
different domains enable a way to measure different levels of empowerment in various contexts. People
may be empowered in one of these domains but not in another, or the degree of empowerment may vary
among the domains (Alsop & Heinsohn, 2005; Carr 2016). A woman may for example be empowered in the
community domain by working and earning an income but experience disempowerment in the household by
facing restrictions on her participation in decision-making or in how to spend household funds (Carr, 2016).
The focus in this paper will be on the two domains household and community, as livelihood is perceived to
overlap in some ways with community. The notion of community will therefore include everything outside
the household such as community organisations, institutions, employment, income-generating activities and
VSLA participation in the context of this study.
2.4 Analytical Tool
As discussed in the previous section, context is an essential aspect when measuring empowerment. Figure
3 visualises the theoretical framework that consists of an opportunity structure and immediate levels of
individual resources, agency and achievements, in the context of household and community.
Figure 3: Visualisation of the theoretical framework.
This paper will examine whether and if so how these interrelated dimensions (Figure 3) in connection
to VSLA activities together affect the process of female empowerment in the domains of household and
community. While viewing the dimensions separately can indicate an individual’s ability to make strategic
choices, they need to be viewed together in order to be able to say something about empowerment.
93 Research Methodology
This study was conducted in collaboration with the development organisation Vi Agroforestry (hereafter
referred to as ViA) in Rwanda. To investigate the situation of women in connection to VSLA activities,
the original intention was to carry out a field study consisting of interviews with female participants of
VSLA groups in Rwandan villages. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in lockdowns in Rwanda
and travel restrictions, it was not possible to travel to Rwanda and visit rural areas to conduct group
interviews as intended. Therefore, digital interviews were carried out with ViA staff, staff at four of their
partner organisations as well as two focus group interviews with female VSLA participants from two partner
organisations in two different districts. Even though collecting data mainly from first-hand sources of
experiences and opinions of female VSLA participants proved unfeasible in the current situation, a greater
proportion of alternative data sources such as interviews with VSLA staff was considered to be sufficient to
answer the research questions. The collection of qualitative data from these interviews was analysed using
the theoretical framework developed for this purpose.
3.1 Interviews
3.1.1 Choice of Interview Respondents
In the following section, the choice of interview respondents in the three phases of interviews will be
outlined.
Interview Phase One
First, an initial interview was held with Jean Claude Rutayisire, FED Officer & Gender Focal Point and
Jackline Mugoboka, Assistant M&E 2 at ViA in Rwanda, to achieve an overview and understanding of ViA’s
collaboration with their partner organisations. The questions used as a basis for this initial interview can be
found in Appendix III. ViA engages in long-term collaborations with local partners, mostly member-based
farmers’ cooperatives. Projects, such as VSLA implementation and related training, are implemented in
partnership with these local civil society organisations (Vi Agroforestry, 2020).
Interview Phase Two
The second phase of interviews included staff from partner organisations (see interview questions in Ap-
pendix IV), and participants were contacted with help from Rutayisire and Mugoboka. First, an introductory
meeting was held with staff at the four partner organisations KAB, Cotumo, Unicoopagi and Zamuka as
well as staff at ViA, intended to introduce everyone involved to each other and to the purpose of the study
before conducting the actual interviews. To gain insights on long-term effects for women participating in
VSLA groups, staff with relevant field experience and knowledge about concrete outcomes for women, and
with a few years of work experience with VSLAs, were chosen for the interviews. To enable comparison
between different research sites and to draw more general conclusions, interviews were conducted with staff
with different experiences and responsibilities related to VSLAs, from four different partner organisations
operating in six different districts. In total, six interviews with partners were carried out (two with Zamuka,
2Monitoring and Evaluation
10two with Unicoopagi and one each with KAB and Cotumu). Below, a short description of each partner
organisation, the respective interviewees and their work with VSLA groups will be presented.
Details About the Involved Partner Organisations
Zamuka, KAB and Cotumu are primary cooperatives operating in different districts of Rwanda, while
Unicoopagi is a union of multiple cooperatives in multiple districts (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: Districts where ViA partner organisations operate; Zamuka (blue), KAB (green), Cotumu (red)
and Unicoopagi (yellow).
ViA cooperates with local farmer cooperatives (partners) by implementing the ALIVE programme (Agro-
forestry for Livelihood Empowerment) through initializing and funding projects at the partner locations.
The ALIVE programme’s main objective is to ‘contribute to a sustainable environment that enables women
and men living in poverty to improve their lives’. This is done by promoting human rights and economic
empowerment through training in sustainable agriculture practices and gender equality, and by implementing
financial services such as VSLA (Vi Agroforestry, 2021).
Zamuka operates in the Gasabo district in the capital city Kigali located in central Rwanda. It has 1310
members out of which 605 are female (46.2%). ViA supports Zamuka through the implementation of the
project ’Market-Oriented Agroforestry for Livelihoods Improvement in Zamuka’, which aims to promote
gender equality, sustainable farming, women and youth in leadership positions and small scale farming.
One means used to achieve these objectives is by initializing VSLA groups, and currently there are 50
groups in the Zamuka cooperative, where all cooperative members are active in one of these. Two staff
members were interviewed from Zamuka; one field officer who works with implementing, monitoring and
evaluating VSLA groups, with three years of experience, and one project coordinator who is responsible for
coordinating the projects Zamuka implements with ViA, with six years of experience.
KAB is based in the Gicumbi district in northern Rwanda, and is supported by ViA through the project
‘Tropical Fruits and Climate Action for Livelihood Empowerment’ (TROCALE). The cooperative consists
of 2231 members, and there are 24 VSLA groups with a total of 728 VSLA participants. Out of these, 483
participants (66.3%) are female. A project coordinator who had been at KAB for six years was interviewed
11for this study. He works with supervising VSLA activities through field visits, and helps organise training
for cooperative members.
Cotumu operates in the Gakenke district in northern Rwanda, and has implemented the project ‘Agroforestry
for Sustainable Maize Production in Cotumu Cooperative’ (ASUMP) with the support of ViA. The main
objective of the project is to increase profitable maize production through agroforestry practices. Cotumu
has 1557 members, whereof 1341 VSLA participants in 43 active groups, out of which 824 participants
(61.4%) are female. A field officer who had been at Cotumu for four years, and had worked with VSLAs for
two years, was interviewed for this study. He is in charge of coordinating and facilitating the Cotumu VSLA
groups.
Unicoopagi is a union of 34 different cooperatives which operate in the Nyamagabe, Nyaruguru and Huye
districts in southern Rwanda. There are 2557 members, making them ViA’s largest partner. With ViA’s
support they have implemented the project ‘Agroforestry for Agriculture and Economic Empowerment’
(AGAPE). The project aims to improve social and economic living conditions by addressing unsustainable
agricultural practices linked to land degradation and low income linked to unreliable markets. There are
currently 445 VSLA members in 22 active groups, of which 262 participants (58.9%) are female. One
project coordinator from Unicoopagi, in charge of organizing, advising and training VSLA groups, with
five years of experience was interviewed. In addition, one field officer working with initiating, educating,
monitoring and evaluating VSLA groups, with three years of experience responded to our questionnaire via
email.
Interview Phase Three
The third and last phase of interviews included two focus group interviews with female VSLA participants
from two different partners, Zamuka and KAB, with ten and fifteen participants respectively. Find the
interview questions in Appendix V and some background information about all participants in Appendix
VI. Regarding the group composition, persons belonging to a minority might feel impeded to express their
opinion if not putting the groups together in a thoughtful way regarding for example age and sex (Bell, 2006).
In our case, first of all we made sure that no man participated during the interviews. The female participants
were of varying ages, between 23 and 57 in one group and between 38 and 69 in the other group, but this
was compensated by the fact that all were part of the same two VSLA groups and knew each other well,
which can be an advantage in how confident they were in expressing their opinion.
3.1.2 Interview Method
Both individual interviews and focus group interviews were conducted digitally in a semi-structured way.
Semi-structured interviews provide the opportunity to ‘probe’ answers, where the respondents were en-
couraged to explain, or build on, their responses (Lewis, Saunders & Thornhill, 2009). Depending on the
direction of the conversation, we adapted follow-up questions based on unclearnesses or interesting topics
that were brought up, which added depth to the obtained data. This flexible structure enabled adaptation for
each interviewee, and left room for them to express experiences and personal feelings (Brinkmann & Kvale,
2009).
12Regarding the choice of focus group interviews in the last interview phase, they are characterised by a
non-directive style of interviewing, where the main focus is not to reach a solution to the issues discussed
but to encourage a variety of viewpoints on the topic (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2009). It is a valuable way of
gaining information about how people think about a certain question and their reflections about why they
have the perceptions that they have (Bell, 2006), and focus groups were therefore considered to be the best
option for this interview phase. Some aspects of female empowerment might be sensitive topics, such as
physical empowerment, referring to a woman’s experience of conflict or controlling behaviour within the
household. This is also a reason for conducting interviews in a group, as group interaction may facilitate
expression of viewpoints usually not accessible in the case of sensitive taboo topics (Brinkmann & Kvale,
2009).
Further on, the issue of power asymmetry was taken into consideration when the choice of focus group
interviews instead of individual interviews was made for the female VSLA participants. The research
interview is a specific professional conversation with a clear power asymmetry between the subject and the
researcher. The interviewer is in a dominant position and has a monopoly of interpretation (Brinkmann &
Kvale, 2009). Being two persons and one interpreter leading the interview, the power asymmetry might be
reduced to some extent if respondents are not interviewed individually.
3.1.3 Development of Interview Questions
When using a semi-structured interview method, an interview guide needs to be developed containing central
themes and questions covering the most important areas of the study. The overall problem formulation of
this study was translated into concrete themes with underlying questions (Dalen, 2007). Interview themes
were derived from the theoretical framework (see Appendix II), and subsequently, interview questions
were derived from those themes (see Appendix IV and V), to assure all themes were covered during the
interviews and provided all necessary data to answer the research questions. The questions in Appendix II
were specifically phrased for partner staff as they were interviewed first, however, the same questionnaire
was rephrased and shortened to fit the focus group interviews with female VSLA participants. Furthermore,
some questions were designed to capture multiple themes, as many of the themes closely overlapped.
3.1.4 Practical Details
The individual interviews with partner staff lasted for averagely two hours each and the group interviews
with female participants lasted for around three hours each. The meeting tool Microsoft Teams was used
for all interviews and some pictures of how it looked like can be found in Appendix VII. The unstable
internet connection disrupted the video calls several times, sometimes the video had to be turned off due to
this and therefore the interviews were not without difficulties. Challenges included language aspects such
as differing skill levels in English among interviewees, the conversation flow, disturbing environments and
decreased possibilities of noticing details such as body language, reactions to questions and conversational
tones when not performing the interviews at the same physical location as the respondents.
The national language and the first language of almost the whole population in Rwanda is Kinyarwanda,
13although also English, French and Swahili are official languages (Africa News, 2017). The interviews
with partner staff could be carried out in English, while the rural population including our female VSLA
participants speak Kinyarwanda or other local languages only. Therefore, a project officer at ViA assisted
with interpretation during these group interviews.
During all the interviews, one of us was responsible for leading the interview while the other took notes.
Additionally, all interviews were screen recorded, which allowed the one of us interviewing to fully pay
attention to the discussion and the answers from the respondent, and for both of us to transcribe the interview
afterwards. This was also a way of handling language issues as the recording enabled several listens in order
to understand the answers. Moreover, the recording was a way of ensuring that the content of the notes taken
during the interviews were correct and to verify the exact content of a citation. Recording is particularly
important when a content analysis is to be made (see Section 3.2) and several listens to the answers from
the discussion is needed to be able to identify different categories (Bell, 2006).
3.1.5 Interpretation
The communication is undoubtedly changed when working with interpreters, which we have carefully tried
to handle. Uncertainties and misunderstandings might arise if the interpreter for example does not possess
knowledge about the terminology used (Björk Brämberg & Dahlberg, 2013; Dalen, 2007), and the need of
simplifying in order to ensure that the interpreter can follow might risk the quality of the communication. In
order to minimise this risk, Jackline Mugoboka was appointed as interpreter, as she is working at ViA with
similar types of questions in her monitoring and evaluation responsibilities. She is therefore knowledgeable
in the topics of this research. Additionally, matching the interpreter and respondents in terms of gender and
cultural background is of vital importance (Björk Brämberg & Dahlberg, 2013). Also therefore, Mugoboka
was found to be the most suitable choice as we requested a Rwandan female interpreter in order to facilitate
discussions on potentially sensitive gender-related topics covered in the interview template, and to encourage
all participants to raise their voices without having to consider the opinion of a man.
The interpreter and the interviewees were at the same physical location, and the interpreter translated our
questions and gave the word to a person in the group when someone indicated she had something to share.
The participants generally distributed the word independently by passing a microphone among themselves
to whoever wanted to share her experience. Most of the time, the interpreter waited for a full answer from
one person and then she translated it. This was found to be the most convenient way to assimilate the largest
possible amount of information from a digital interview with a group of 10-15 people, with an unstable
internet connection and from time to time a disturbing environment.
143.1.6 Summary of Interviews
Table 1 shows a summary of all conducted interviews.
Table 1: Summary of interviews.
Interview Respondent(s) Organisation Duration Date
Number
1 (Initial Jean Claude Rutayisire, FED Officer & Gender Vi Agroforestry 2 hours 2021-04-20
Interview) Focal Point and Jackline Mugoboka, Assistant
M&E at Vi Agroforestry
2 Field Officer 1 (Male) Cotumu 2 hours 2021-04-29
3 Project Coordinator 1 (Male) KAB 2 hours 2021-04-29
4 Project Coordinator 2 (Male) Zamuka 2.5 hours 2021-05-03
5 Project Coordinator 3 (Male) Unicoopagi 2 hours 2021-05-03
6 Field Officer 2 (Male) Zamuka 2.5 hours 2021-05-03
7 Field Officer 3 (Male) Unicoopagi Email 2021-05-10
8 VSLA Group 1 (10 Female Participants) Zamuka 3.5 hours 2021-05-10
9 VSLA Group 2 (15 Female Participants) KAB 3 hours 2021-05-12
3.2 Data Analysis
To be able to categorise and analyse the data in relation to the choice of theoretical framework, a content
analysis following the procedures of the Gioia Methodology was used (Corley, Gioia & Hamilton, 2012).
This methodology can be used as a tool to translate the participants’ language to theoretical concepts. As it
provides a transparent way of interpreting interview data to theory, it provides the study results with a higher
degree of trustworthiness and traceability (Geiger, 2017). The Gioia Methodology is an inductive approach
that builds on first conducting a “1st-order” analysis, which focuses on participants’ direct information and
word usage, followed by a “2nd-order” analysis, which uses researcher-centric concepts and themes linked
to the intended theory (Corley, Gioia & Hamilton, 2012). After this stage, it is possible to separate the
data into “aggregate dimensions”, representing top-level categories in the model proposed in the theoretical
framework (Geiger, 2017).
When analysing the transcribed interview data, direct quotes containing interesting information were first
sorted out, either one sentence or a shorter paragraph. This is the 1st-order data, which is the most expansive
category set. In the next stage, these were further categorised under broader concepts and themes with
linkage to the theory. These 2nd-order themes are, for example, ‘individual knowledge’, ‘financial assets’,
‘access to social networks’, and so on. This generated a more manageable number of categories compared to
the 1st-order. As the chosen theoretical framework centers on different dimensions of female empowerment
within the domains ‘household’ and ‘community’, the data analysis reflected this by categorising the 2nd-
order themes into either one or both of these domains. The 2nd-order themes were then further separated
into ‘aggregate dimensions’ corresponding to the dimensions in the theoretical framework (Corley, Gioia
& Hamilton, 2012). These are Opportunity Structure, Agency and Resources (with sub-categories). Based
on the data structure this methodology provides, it was then possible to induce what dimensions of female
empowerment are affected by VSLA activities, and which were most strongly affected. Table 2 illustrates
two examples of how 1st-order data was categorised into 2nd-order theme(s), domain(s) and aggregate
15dimension(s).
Table 2: Example of coding schedule using the Gioia Methodology.
1st Order (Quote) 2nd Order Domain Aggregate Dimensions
“[Female VSLA participants] get the confidence to join Self-esteem, Self-confidence, Community and Psychological Resources,
leadership positions in the community, in VSLA or in Household
other groups of the community. The VSLA groups ex- Individual knowledge, Skills, Human Resources,
pand their knowledge. Different members have different
information from different places. When they are ex- Access to social networks, Social Resources
changing, deciding, they are empowered. It is like a Increased female participation
school.” in leadership positions.
“Before I was waiting for my husband to buy clothes for Access to and control over eco- Household Economic Resources
me. Now, with the money I get, I am able to save some nomic resources,
amount to buy the clothes that I want.” Decision-making in household
spending.
3.3 The Trustworthiness of The Study
Reliability refers to the trustworthiness and consistency of a study and whether a finding can be replicated
by other researchers at other times, using the same method. Validity means whether a method investigates
what it claims to investigate (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2009). Awareness regarding the manner in which
interaction with respondents occurs, how questions are asked and how that impacts the collected data, is
of high importance (Lewis, Saunders & Thornhill, 2009). Our aim was to generate highly qualitative and
representative material, taking into consideration factors that might affect the reliability and validity, such
as that a greater proportion of the empirical data had to be collected from alternative sources and the limited
number of respondents.
Regarding the individual interviews with partner staff, all interviewees are male. The reason is that men
constitute a majority on the specific positions targeted for these interviews, and only men were available
for interviews during this time frame. Therefore, one has to keep in mind that through their position and
work tasks, by meeting and discussing with the female participants, they can likely provide a good, overall
picture of how life situations for women in the villages have changed due to VSLA, but they might not have
complete insight into topics such as women’s change in self-esteem and self-confidence or their experience
of violence in the household. One can also imagine that they have an interest in giving positively angled
answers and make the results of their work with VSLA look good. We have therefore tried to focus on filling
these potential gaps by asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions rather than ‘what’ in the focus group interviews
with the female VSLA participants to increase the reliability and the validity of the data. Additionally, as we
sent the questionnaire to the staff members prior to the interview in order to facilitate discussion, they might
have prepared some answers that ‘sound good’ and emphasise positive outcomes, compared to the answer
they would have given if they had to reflect on the question in the moment without preparation.
To handle the language issue and to ensure reliability in capturing the exact meaning of each interview
answer, all interviews were listened to several times during transcription. Another reliability issue is the
limited number of female respondents included in the study. The data will be based on a small number of
VSLA group participants from a few selected districts, and considering the total number of VSLA groups
in Rwanda, this can skew the result of the study as these participants may not be representative of all VSLA
groups. Furthermore, the female respondents may be more keen to share their positive experiences rather
16than their negative experiences, for example related to equality in the household and other gender-related
issues, as some participants might feel that those issues are private and do not feel comfortable discussing
them in front of their friends and neighbors in the room. This might be reflected in the trustworthiness of
the collected data.
3.4 Ethical Considerations
Participation in the study was completely voluntary. Mutual approval was a criterion to be included in
the study, and all participants were asked to give their informed consent. The objective and aim of the
study was clearly stated before the participants were asked to consent to ensure that no participant felt
misled or deceived. As some interview questions might have been perceived as sensitive, it was also crucial
that all participants felt safe in how their identities and the interview data was handled in the study. It
was important that the participants should feel able to share their honest experiences in relation to VSLA
groups, both positive or otherwise. Confidentiality and anonymity was therefore important to gain trust and
access to participants’ experiences (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2009; Lewis, Saunders & Thornhill, 2009). Only
involved ViA staff are mentioned by name, with their consent. For the partner staff, background information
such as gender, name of the organisation, their role and years of experience is disclosed in the report with
their consent. For the female participants, information about their age, marital status, number of children,
education, source of income and number of years in the VSLA group was collected with their consent, in
order to achieve a greater understanding of factors that might affect their life situations. Additionally, a
few pictures of the interviewees and interview set-ups are included in Appendix VII with the participants’
consent. To further the candidness of the participant’s answers and the interviewer’s trustworthiness, it
was also clarified that the study is unaffiliated with any other actor’s agenda and that we, as interviewers,
are independent and objective (Lewis, Saunders & Thornhill, 2009). The study should not cause the
participants any embarrassment or discomfort, and they were therefore informed that they were free to
withdraw from the study at any point. Permission was additionally asked for all recordings, screenshots and
photos taken.
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