Tabs navigation
Microfinance and behaviour change among Nairobi's commercial sex workers
The KVOWRC (Kenya Voluntary Women Rehabilitation Centre) is a programme aimed at helping commercial sex workers in Nairobi to find an alternative source of income; it achieves this through counselling,
peer support and business loans. This study examines whether the programme has been successful in helping the women leave commercial sex work, and finds that a large proportion of women have found alternative
work, and now have an improved sense of self-esteem. The loan loss rate is high, howeve, with 60 per cent of women in arrears. Losses might be reduced if there were more built-in incentives to repay, and
if repayments were not collected by the social workers who provide counselling. Even so, it is difficult to see how the programme could ever be financially sustainable given the poverty of its clientele.
peer support and business loans. This study examines whether the programme has been successful in helping the women leave commercial sex work, and finds that a large proportion of women have found alternative
work, and now have an improved sense of self-esteem. The loan loss rate is high, howeve, with 60 per cent of women in arrears. Losses might be reduced if there were more built-in incentives to repay, and
if repayments were not collected by the social workers who provide counselling. Even so, it is difficult to see how the programme could ever be financially sustainable given the poverty of its clientele.
Tabs navigation
- Trade-off between outreach and sustainability of microfinance institutions: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa
- What is cocoa sustainability? Mapping stakeholders’ socio-economic, environmental, and commercial constellations of priorities
- Impact assessment of commodity standards: towards inclusive value chains
- Development impact bonds: learning from the Asháninka cocoa and coffee case in Peru
- Value chain development for rural poverty reduction: A reality check and a warning
Browse our other journals
