WUNRN
VENEZUELA - MICROCREDIT BANK FOR
WOMEN - SERVICES FREE - GRASSROOTS ECONOMICS & DEVELOPMENT
"We
decided that it was the bank that had to go to the women. We set up small teams
of local women, with one leader, in each state. Poverty cannot be fought only
with money. To overcome poverty, you need to work with solidarity-based
organisations, which can even be families themselves."
Nora Castañeda, in
front of a sign containing one of Banmujer’s slogans about small-scale loans in
a socialist, feminist economy. Credit: Raúl Límaco/IPS
Estrella
Gutiérrez Interviews NORA CASTAÑEDA, President of Banmujer
- “Our raison d’etre is
incorporating women in development, and especially in the benefits of
development,” says Nora Castañeda, an economist who has headed the Banmujer
bank in
Castañeda,
who describes herself as a socialist and feminist, has dedicated her life to
defending women’s rights. And she continues to fight for that cause in the
Banco de Desarrollo de la Mujer (Women’s Development Bank – Banmujer),
which she defines as “a different kind of bank,” in the broader context of the
world’s microcredit institutions.
Her lengthy career includes
founding the Women’s Studies Centre at the Central University of Venezuela and
coordinating the participation of the local NGOs in the Fourth World Conference
on Women in
Banmujer, the only public bank
of its kind in the world – which targets women, offering them services
completely free of charge – has granted 150,000 small loans for a total of 10.7
million dollars.
Q: What characterises
Banmujer as a microcredit institution?
A: There are several kinds of
microfinance institutions, but Banmujer is different from all of them, because
making a profit is not our raison d’etre. But there is a more important aspect
as well: incorporating women in development, and especially in the benefits of
development. And you can’t do that with microcredit alone.
Q: How did the idea
emerge?
A: The road to
If the economic foundations of
society do not change for women, especially the poorest women, there is no
empowerment, and gender parity laws remain a paper promise.
Q: So microcredit is a
means to an end?
A: Definitely. The bank was not
set up just to grant microloans. If we merely did that, we would simply be
reproducing the triple shift that women face (childcare and housework, outside
employment, and community involvement), although only one of these is paid, and
badly.
Incorporating women in the
benefits of the economy will not just be brought about by means of microcredit,
but by improving our quality of life, by strengthening family solidarity, and
through work, honesty and sharing.
We started to work in that
direction, with a very collective learning process, very South-South, very
characteristic of our
Q: Could you mention an
example of something you had to unlearn?
A: We had to unlearn what a
bank is, because we had been told that it was a financial institution whose
goal is to make a profit. We discussed the model that we wanted a great deal,
and decided that we had to prioritise and focus on the poorest women, and
address the feminisation of poverty.
Q: What model did that
process come up with?
A: The solidarity model, based
on cooperation and mutual aid. A model based on the idea that the people who
manage and administer are public servers of others. It wasn’t easy, we made
mistakes. Your proposals aren’t always understood from the outside; things
don’t always work the way you think they will.
It’s a new path, and there has
been trial and error, in practice. And there is also the very important time
variable: these are slow processes, and it is hard to adapt and understand how
things work.
Q: What brings women to
the bank?
A: We decided that it was the
bank that had to go to the women. We set up small teams of local women, with
one leader, in each state.
We also established strategic
alliances with organised communities, other state institutions, women’s
organisations, and churches.
We go to the communities, we
offer support, we ask for a simple working plan, and, first and foremost, we
offer training. All of the women must attend at least three workshops, because
they could receive money and not be successful in their endeavours due to
reasons connected to the poverty in which they live.
Poverty cannot be fought only
with money. To overcome it, you need to work with solidarity-based
organisations, which can even be families themselves. Men can be involved, as
long as the coordinator is a woman and men are a minority. The thing is, even
in that situation, the men take charge, and the women accept it, because it is
the way things usually work.
Q: What is the aim of the
training?
A: We are trying to turn the
women into grassroots economists; we want them to ask themselves academic-style
questions, such as what to produce, how, where, when and for whom, as part of a
two-way exchange of knowledge, which we all have, but not in a systematised
format.
We also replace market analysis
with a participative community diagnosis of the needs of the neighbourhood and
community, or we carry out a cost analysis, which incorporates women as workers
and sets an adequate amount of surplus value.
The aim is for people to be
economists, because it is too serious a question to just leave to economists.
There is also follow-up and
technical support, and it is all free of charge. That also sets us apart.
Q: How many people has
Banmujer benefited?
A: Directly: about 150,000
people, 10 percent of whom were men. Behind each person there is a family with
an average of five members.
Q: How does the loan
process work?
A: We have managed some 467
million bolivars (10.7 million dollars at the official exchange rate) in 11
years. The support given provides ongoing results.
We have granted 150,000 loans.
But this has indirectly favoured a large number of other women, as the loans
have a multiplication effect in the surrounding community.
That is the aim of the
workshops. Our mission is to learn, and to be recognised as something positive
that is worth emulating.
Microcredit is a tool, and the
cross-cutting aspect is a change of values. We told the president (Hugo
Chávez): microcredit is an excuse for reaching women, and with them, through
them, and for them, organising ourselves as a people. And he told me: ok, but
you give them the credit (laughs).
Along the way, we decided to
prioritise agriculture, including urban and peri-urban, to address two
overlapping phenomena: the feminisation of the countryside and of poverty.
Q: What are the
conditions of credit and payment?
A: The loans are for 48 months
and are 6,000 bolivars (1,400 dollars) per person for groups of up to nine
people. The interest rate ranges from zero to six percent. There are no profits
– it’s non-profit, but the aim is also to be non-loss.
We are a bank subsidised by the
state, which is unique in the case of women, to help meet the Millennium
Development Goals (a series of development and anti-poverty targets adopted by
U.N. members in 2000), including the elimination of poverty and the empowerment
of women. We maximise cost savings as much as possible, so that our balance
sheets never reflect a loss.
This way, the women receive
more and more money. Those who pay back the loans are given a new one; that’s
why they are all keen on keeping up on their payments. The women are constantly
paying back their loans; sometimes instead of making the entire payment, they
pay just part of it, but later on they catch up.