How Women’s Economic Empowerment program affects financial literacy : A qualitative study from the Philippines

Sammanfattning: Women’s empowerment and gender equality contribute to the achievement of a sustainable world according to United Nations and Agenda 2030. Previous research highlights the impact of microfinance program on women’s empowerment. Through a lack in previous research, the aim of this report emerged. The aim is to describe and analyse women’s experience of how a microfinance program focused on women’s economic empowerment in the Philippines affect their financial literacy and in what ways financial literacy can be related to their empowerment. The study consists of a qualitative methodology and elements of a deductive approach. The collected empirical data consist of documents, observations and interviews. The results show that, through seminars and participation, the women got increased their knowledge in economics. Women’s participation in the microfinance program also lead to empowerment. The result shows that the women bring the knowledge from the program home to their personal finances and affects the individual’s environment. The impact of the microfinance program has larger effects for many women, not only the one participating in the program. Therefore, to understand the phenomena in this study, it is necessary to include experiences from outside the microfinance program. Because on the result in this report, the suggestions for future research is to investigate the correlation between the microfinance program and women’s personal finances.