Women in the BPD and Unit Desa financial services programs : lessons from two impact studies in Indonesia

However, women make up a significant portion of the clientele of two Indonesian programs -- the Unit Desa network of the Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and the village financial institutions supervised by government provincial banks, the Bank Pembangunan Daerahs (BPD"s). This paper analyzes these female clients in terms of participation, loan sizes and terms, repayment, saving, occupations, access to credit, and income levels. Major findings include the following: (1) Female participation is higher in the BPD systems, which have the greatest outreach into the villages where women tend to live and work. In the most decentralized BPD systems, women comprise as much as 72% of clients, compared with 24% at the BRI Unit Desa. (2) Financial institutions that offer small loans at the village level and that charge market interest rates are more likely to reach women than cheaper, more centralized programs. (3) Women are strong financial clients and have high savings levels relative to income. (4) Women have fewer options to get credit than men. The studies of the two programs drew conflicting conclusions regarding the effect on clients of increased access to financial services. The paper reviews the survey methodologies to analyze these opposing results.