Arming The Other Half: Attaining Sustainability
Through Women With Microfinance
Author(s)
F. Tariq & S. Umar
Abstract
Traditional approaches have repeatedly failed in the past to gain successful
sustainable development even after allocating huge development funds. Projects
cannot be solved without taking into account women’s concerns and realities.
This should not come as a surprise since women constitute half of society and
ignoring this reality cannot solve any human problem. Governments and the
international community have consensus that women play a key role in all
successful development processes. This paper builds on the premise that
sustainable development and women’s empowerment can be realized through
microfinance. In order to be effective, sustainable development must go hand in
hand with women-focused microfinance policies. The recommendations are
based on the Islamic finance system and the experiences of low-income women
with housing microfinance practices in Pakistan.
Keywords: sustainable development, women empowerment, Islamic
microfinance, housing microfinance.
1 Sustainability and women
To boost sustainable development, the United Nations announced the
Millennium Development Goals, aimed at achieving them by the year 2015 [4].
As argued by Easterly [5], sustainable development is a complex process and
cannot be ‘programmed’ through linear interventions. Brundtland’s [6] concept
of sustainable development is \“development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
In Nordberg’s words, \“sustainability is a concept increasingly used as a measure
of the worth of an approach to meeting shelter needs” [7]. Many studies reveal
Keywords
sustainable development, women empowerment, Islamic
microfinance, housing microfinance.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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