| Credit programs, using the group loan methodology, continue to gain widespread appeal in the field of international development, especially in the domain of micro-enterprise development. It is therefore paramount that evaluators and researchers assess systematically the effects of micro/small enterprise development programs on their participants. This evaluation study focuses on understanding how female borrowers enrolled in a Kenyan national private voluntary organization called Kenya Women's Finance Trust (KWFT) acquire and apply their skills in business and loan management. The study also addressed the effects of program enrollment on participants' consumption patterns. The questionnaires used were constructed from pre-dissertation research, using qualitative methods in Karatina, conducted one year prior to the implementation of the research.; A mixed-method design guided the study. Specifically, a quasi-experimental group design was used for one part of the study and qualitative methods were utilized for another part. The quantitative sample was comprised of a total of eighty-one subjects, forty-one of whom were repaying their second loans, the program group. The remaining forty were new members who had not yet accessed credit, the comparison group. The qualitative sample constituted eight participants, six of whom were repaying loans of various sizes and two of whom were new members.; Inquiry results suggest that compared to new members, those surveyed from the program group engage in more frugal and/or efficient weekly consumption habits as a response to perceived pressures endured from participating in KWFT's credit program. In specific, the perceived pressures which program participants may endure include pressures to: pay the loan, save weekly, accumulate household assets, pay on behalf of others, and pay organizational/ group maintenance fees. In addition, group members shared with each other information about prices of household goods/services, and it is speculated that such interaction helped experimental group subjects to spend frugally/efficiently. |
