Women’s access to finance in Mozambique (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 993)
This report examines the barriers to access and use of finance in Mozambique
Abstract
Query
Please provide a literature review on issues relating to women’s access to finance in Mozambique, including the barriers and current situation in terms of access and use.
Overview
Access to finance in Mozambique is very low across all sectors of the population; 77 per cent are deemed to be financially excluded, while 79 per cent of women are excluded (de Vletter, F., Lauchande, C. and Infante, E., 2009). Within this statistic, there are variables showing that the most excluded are those with the lowest levels of education, lowest income and in the most remote locations, of which many are women (de Vletter et al., 2009). Access to finance is regularly listed in the literature as one of the major barriers for women’s enterprise development, along with barriers created through gender norms such as lack of skills, training and business development knowledge. This report reviews the barriers for women, their current use of financial services and products, and the specific challenge of HIV/AIDS.
For this report a brief search was conducted in Portuguese to identify Portuguese-language papers, but the literature did not offer exclusive insights beyond what was already available in English. The report thus focuses on English-language literature. There are only a few research outputs which look specifically at Mozambican women’s access to finance, but there is enough literature on women in Mozambique and women’s access to finance in Africa to present strong evidence. Where the literature makes statements on general access to finance, it can be assumed that women are more disadvantaged than men.
Citation
Browne, E. Women’s access to finance in Mozambique (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 993). Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK (2013) 13 pp.
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