WHO TAKES THE CREDIT - GENDER, POWER, AND CONTROL OVER LOAN USE IN RURAL CREDIT PROGRAMS IN BANGLADESH

Special credit institutions in Bangladesh have dramatically increased the credit available to poor rural women since the mid-1980s. Though t his is intended to contribute to women's empower ment, few evaluations of loan use investigate whether women actually control this credit. M ost often, women's continued high demand for loans and their manifestl y high propensity to repay is taken as a proxy indicator for control a nd empowerment. This paper challenges this assumption by exploring var iations in the degree to which women borrowers control their loans dir ectly; reporting on recent research which finds a significant proporti on of women's loans to be controlled by male relatives. The paper find s that a preoccupation with ''credit performance'' - measured primaril y in terms of high repayment rates - affects the incentives of fieldwo rkers dispensing and recovering credit, in ways which may outweigh con cerns to ensure that women develop meaningful control over their inves tment activities.