Abstract
The chapter reveals that women's role in enterprise and household decision making, their access to assets, and control over self-earnings have improved significantly among client and non-client groups. Self-help credit program (SHCP) has facilitated them to make decisions for their personal needs, availing treatment, recreational facilities, and participate independently in household decision making. However, SHCP should incorporate necessary steps to enhance empowerment of women irrespective of their duration in program, types of economic activities, and marital status. In order to transform SHCP into a genuine livelihood diversification and gender strategy, women's empowerment needs to be understood as more than a marginal increase in access to income, and/or consultation in limited areas of enterprise and household decision making and/or occasional meetings with a small group of other women.
TopIntroduction
Livelihood refers to a means of securing a living using individual’s capabilities and activities including tangible (stores and resources) and intangible assets (claims and access). A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (both material resources and social resources), and activities required for a means of living (Scoones, 1998). A livelihood comprises the assets, activities, and their access by the individual or household (Ellis, 2000). The concept of livelihood has been studied through rural poverty alleviation, environmental protection and rural development in developing countries (Cramb, Purcell, & Ho, 2004; Ellis & Bahiigwa, 2003; Ellis, Kutgengule, & Nyasulu, 2003; Ellis & Mdoe, 2003; Scoones, 1998; Ellis, 2000). A household is poor in relation to its vulnerability and location in a high-risk living environment. A fragile ecological environment, shortage of water resources, ecological problems, ineffective communication structures, and other issues are liked to a high vulnerability of household livelihood and lack of livelihood strategies (Zhou, Dong, & Li, 2004). Therefore, livelihood diversification and sustainable ecosystem can be seen as contributing factors toward rural poverty alleviation.
The concept of livelihood diversification is emerging as a survival strategy of rural households in developing countries (Ellis, 2000; Bryceson, 2000). The rural people are looking for diverse opportunities to increase and stabilize their incomes, which are determined by their portfolio of assets - social, human, financial, natural and physical capital (Ellis, 1999). The impact of livelihood diversification varies from negative effects - the ‘withdrawal of critical labour from the family farm’ to positive effects - the ‘alleviation of credit constraints and a reduction in the risk of innovation’. The contribution made by livelihood diversification to rural livelihoods is a significant one, which has often been ignored by policy makers who have chosen to focus their activities on agriculture (Ellis, 1998). Reardon (1997) and Turner et al. (1993) have highlighted the importance of earnings from non-farm activities. The livelihood diversification activities are of increasing importance for women empowerment (Bryceson, 1996, 2000; Bryceson & Jamal, 1997) through additional income earning and improvements in family welfare (Ellis, 1999) supplemented by self help micro credit (Hulme & Mosley, 1996; Johnson & Rogaly, 1997). The self-help micro credit programmes have played valuable roles in reducing the vulnerability of the poor, through asset creation, income and consumption smoothing, provision of emergency assistance, and empowering and emboldening women by giving them control over assets and increased self-esteem and knowledge (Banerjee, Karlan, & Zinman 2015; Blattman, Fiala, & Martinez, 2014; Field, Pande, Papp, & Rigol, 2014; Khander & Samad 2014; Zaman, 2001). Several studies have also generally reported positive impacts (Simanowitz & Walker, 2002; Lalitha & Nagarajan, 2002; Krishnaraj & Kay, 2002; Khandker, 1998).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship is defined as any attempt at new business or new venture creation, such as self-employment, a new business organization, or the expansion of an existing business, by an individual, a team of individuals, or an established business. It can help improve employment, reduce social inequalities, or solve environmental issues and supports the survival and growth of new businesses.
Entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurs are innovators who implement entrepreneurial change within markets through introduction of a new good, introduction of a new method of production, opening of a new market, exploitation of a new source of supply, and re-organization of business management processes. It is the dynamic process of identifying economic opportunities and acting upon them by developing, producing, and selling goods and services. It is the ability to marshal resources to seize new business opportunities. It refers to enterprising individuals who display the readiness to take risks with new or innovative ideas to generate new products or services.
Level of Entrepreneurial Activity: The level of entrepreneurial activity differs greatly from one country to another, and within the same country from time to time, and is influenced by several types of factors such as economic, institutional, technological, and cultural factors. Aggregate level of entrepreneurial activity in a country is the result of a multiple interaction between human capital, the level of economic development, and institutions.
Entrepreneurship’s Pillars: Entrepreneurship is supported by five pillars such as access to funding, entrepreneurship culture, tax and regulation, education and training, and coordinated support by specialized organizations including governmental agencies, business incubators, clusters, business centers, etc.
Diversification: Diversification is primarily a risk management strategy; both risk mitigation in anticipation of shock and coping after actual shock. Diversification can have ‘economy of scope’ effect when the rural households invest resources across multiple scopes and reap higher per unit returns.
Entrepreneurial Activity: Entrepreneurial activity is differentiated from the relatively static management. It is concerned with the process of change, emergence, and creation of business activities. Entrepreneurial activities occur within a business context, which is impacted by economic, political, legal, social, cultural, social, and natural settings. In undertaking such entrepreneurial activities, the entrepreneur is endeavoring to create value. Entrepreneurial activity is different from ordinary business activity. Entrepreneurial activities do not limit to new markets or new products alone, but also includes new processes, planned or intended. Entrepreneurial activity includes the entry of new markets, the creation of new products or services, and/or the innovation associated with different business activities. Entrepreneurial activity can therefore be associated with organic as well as acquisitive decisions.
Determinants of Entrepreneurship: Technology, level of economic development, demography, culture, and institutions are the main determinants of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial activity is influenced by individual characteristics (salary, wealth, age, and demographic characteristic), the economic characteristics (income per capita and unemployment rate), and the social characteristics (religion, social status of entrepreneurs, and education).
Entrepreneurship Activity: Entrepreneurship activity is defined in terms of life cycle of entrepreneurial ventures and their types. It is significantly higher in countries with a lower level of development, a higher income inequality and high levels of unemployment, whereas, in more developed countries, entrepreneurial activity is more reduced.
Watershed: A watershed is a topographically delineated area that is drained by a stream system. It is the total area above some point on a stream or river that drains past that point. A watershed is also a hydrological response unit, a biophysical unit, and a holistic ecosystem in terms of the materials, energy, and information that flow through it. Watersheds can vary in size from thousands of square kilometers to a small area drained by a freshet.
Watershed Management: Watershed management is any human action aimed at ensuring the sustainable use of watershed resources. It involves examining the interactions among various natural processes and land uses and managing land, water, and the wider ecosystem of the watershed in an integrated way. It combines measures that improve or conserve the ecosystem services and functions in the watershed, increase land productivity and resource efficiency, and improve or diversify people’s livelihoods and income.
Integrated Watershed Management: Integrated watershed management builds upon the principles of watershed management to integrate various social, technical, and institutional dimensions, as well as conservation, social, and economic objectives through an adaptive, comprehensive, integrated multi-resource management planning process that seeks to balance healthy ecological, economic, and cultural/social conditions within a watershed by balancing human and environmental needs.