Résumé en anglais
Title : Microcredit: the empowerment of Ivorian women‟s
Abstract
The application of structural adjustment by the World Bank and by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) in the last decade has not spared the developing countries including
those in Sub-Saharan Africa like the Ivory Coast. Thus, some countries will experience the
phenomenon of rural exodus to urban centers, creating an urban overcrowding, falling living
standards and unemployment with the consequent poverty.
The evolution of this phenomenon in the Ivory Coast accentuated by the various socio-
political crises already known by the country allows us to retain that poverty remains a
worrying fact. In those cases, the oil crisis of the 70s, the economic crisis of the 80s with its
successive structural adjustment programs, and the CFA franc devaluation in the Third World
have further complicated households situation.
This reality in rural areas has increased in urban areas. The main victims are the young
and women. Indeed, the latter are faces with problems of exclusion, distancing with a real
problem of access to resources. Microcredit, particularly in the Ivory Coast, is an alternative
by giving poor women a right to credit in order to accumulate savings and invest in activities
generating income. We should think of the many advantages in terms of empowerment. A
gain of power that could allow them to be independent and to fight against women‟s poverty.
Discipline: Sociology
Key words: Microcredit, empowerment and women‟s poverty.
INTITULE ET ADRESSE DU LABORATOIRE DE RECHERCHE
IRSA-CRI (EA 3025) : Institut de Recherche Sociologiques et Anthropologiques/ Centre de
Recherche sur l‟Imaginaire, Université Montpellier III. 17, rue Abbé de l‟Epée. 34090
Montpellier