Impact of Van Mujeres

As of September 2006, the Van Mujeres program has supported 9,000 women to launch or expand their small business activities. This recently launched program has extended loans in excess of $3.5 million for self-employment purposes to some of the poorest people in Mexico—rural indigenous women of Tabasco. With a co-payment of US$100, participating women have received micro credits up to US$600 to start-up or grow their business activities. While it remains too early to measure the impact on the regional economy, the creation of new income earning opportunities for the women of these communities translates into an additional income of US$2-10 a day (the minimum wage in Mexico is US$4.20). Because rural unemployment and underemployment of the men in the state ranges from 40-60%, this means that with these new self-made jobs, the women are becoming significant income providers for their families. Van Mujeres is helping thousands of women to move from one or two meals a day to three, from one or two sets of clothing to three or four, and to be able to send their children to school, buy medicine, and have a little extra to deal with emergences.


One-third of the business activities that women are engaging in are agricultural—raising and selling chicken, pigs, vegetables, even aquaculture. More than 60% of the women are selling goods locally such as clothing, shoes, jewelry or setting up small stores, or making and selling food. Five percent of the women are engaging in industrial activities including clothing manufacturing and food processing, such as meat butchering.


In addition to supporting women to create new economic opportunities for themselves, Van Mujeres is positively impacting the lives of the women and their families, and yielding social benefits in their communities. Initial surveys reveal that the self-esteem of the women and hope for the future of their families are significantly higher (67% of the women report higher self-esteem). Women are reporting new promise for a modest, but measurable improvements for these women and their families: better food, shelter, clothing, some basic health care, opportunities for education, and more control, less anxiety, and the ability to plan, within a limited range, for the future. Also, for the first time in their lives, the Van Mujeres women are enjoying the benefits of life insurance programs provided by the financial institutions (average life insurance benefits are US$13,400). These positive impacts are beginning to extend into the communities of these marginalized regions, because the local activities are substituting for “imported” goods and services, therefore capturing more income locally. As women see the results of women in the program, new savings groups are forming and women not involved in Phase 1 are eagerly awaiting an opportunity to participate in Phase 2.


Van Mujeres is showing strong early signs of success in terms of women repaying their loans. For a brand new program, still working to solve the inevitable administrative bugs and glitches, the repayment rate of loans is 98.6%, with only 1.4% of women falling more than 3 months behind in their repayments. The field agents are monitoring very closely those women who are missing payments and helping them to solve their payment problems. In addition, women leaders in the community saving circles are stepping up to provide local social support and pressure to encourage repayment. As all women understand the risk that non-payment poses for the future of the entire program, solutions for repayment are typically discovered.


Finally, one of the most significant accomplishment of Van Mujeres is the establishment of a strong foundation of 350 committed leaders, field agents, financial stakeholders, and technical support teams. The training and on-the-job learning of the technical agents, technicians, bankers, technicians, social capital workshop leaders, and others that form the Van Mujeres Team has been significant during this first year, and represents a substantial asset that can be leveraged in subsequent phases of the program.