Women, enterprise, and development; the Pathfinder Fund's women in development : projects, evaluation, and documentation (WID/PED) program, September 1980-December 1984

This report reviews the program's accomplishments. All five projects - a metalworking enterprise in Brazil, an ice cream factory in Costa Rica, an egg production cooperative and a bakery in rural Honduras, and a crafts and sewing enterprise in rural Jamaica - produced goods for sale in the formal economic market. Group ownership and self-management, reinforced by grant rather than loan capitalization and the provision of technical assistance and training by local technicians, promoted group commitment as well as financial and managerial self-sufficiency. The training was mostly 1-2 years in duration and focused not only on business skills but also on the context in which the skills would be used. Even so, experience showed that even more training in marketing - the key to long-term viability - was needed. Indigenous personnel received special training to collect research data on the projects' economic impact, the factors contributing to success or failure, and the question of self-sufficiency. At the program's termination, all the projects were operating; three were meeting current expenses; four had working capital for cost-effective production; and one was making a net profit. Four had already achieved a legal status which made them eligible for credit, and the fifth (the bakery) had access to union loans. Besides the factors noted above, the conducting of pre-project market and feasibility studies and the provision of adequate functional equipment helped the projects to benefit some 100 uneducated women previously lacking in formal economic experience and to positively affect gender relations and social relations within their respective communities. Recommendations for policymakers in the areas of program evaluation and of women in development, population, and private enterprise programs are provided, as are case histories of the five projects.