Women’s Empowerment Through Women Self Help Groups: An Empirical Evidence from Mekelle, Ethiopia

Abstract

Women's empowerment and their participation are essential in the development process. Development projects and schemes cannot achieve their desired goals and targets without empowering the women who constitute more than 50 percent of Ethiopia’s population. The main objective of the study was to assess women's empowerment through self-help groups in Mekelle, Ethiopia. The researcher used a two-stage random sampling procedure for selecting the study area, women's self-help groups, and sample respondents. A descriptive survey design was used for the study. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used for gathering primary and secondary data. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. The study results revealed that self-help group interventions have enhanced women’s income, participation in social activities, awareness of health and education, self-confidence, and social status. Self-help group interventions have positively contributed to the economic empowerment of women and protected them from exploitation by money lenders, landlords, etc. but there were not strong contributions in other aspects like political participation, involvement in innovative income generation activities, and other developmental activities. Some self-help groups were facing problems like lack of self-confidence, low managerial and, bookkeeping skills, and shortage of capital. Therefore, it is suggested that there should be effective and continuous information, education, and communication activities to train women on self-help group interventions and their proper management.