Microcredit Impact in Northern Africa Countries: A Case Study Analysis

Abstract

Background: This paper has the objective to study the impact of microcredit projects in North-Africa, from two points of view: - The gender perspective, with focus of the impact of microfinance projects in women’s empowerment - The sectorial perspective, with focus on specific economic and productive sectors, among which the fishing. Objective: the paper is devoted to evaluate, through some case studies, the economic and the social impact of microcredit analyzing how this tool can help improving the social status of women in third countries of the world, with the aim of identifying some patterns to a profitable exploitation of the potential offered by this microfinance instrument. Results: Analysis of the impact of microcredit projects to empower women and people employed in the fishing sector. Conclusion: Microcredit is confirmed to be still a useful tool to promote the empowerment of small communities and to favor the growth of small businesses. The analysis carried out in this paper on particular geographical contexts (North Africa) and sectorial (fishing sector), shows that microcredit, although with considerable limitations - including the objective difficulty to estimate its real impact in fighting against poverty in the medium and long term-, can still be considered as a useful tool, to respond to the critical issues that most affect people belonging to such areas.