Ra Ximhai (Jul 2014)
REGIONAL FUND FOR INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN THE ZIRAHUÉN LAKE REGIÓN OF PÁTZCUARO: CHALLENGES FOR ITS TRANSFORMATION INTO A CREDIT DISPERSOR
Abstract
The conviction that there is a virtuous link between financing and economic growth has resulted in the government promoting financial services. The new financial policies seek to encourage, with particular interest, the inclusion of the population segments that are seldom attended by the commercial and development banks. One of the least attended segments is that found in the rural areas. This is explained by their widely-spaced geographic dispersion, which characterizes the sector. For this reason, verification and follow-up are costly, and agriculture is a high risk activity. To solve this problem, new financial intermediary figures are needed. These figures must operate under schemas that are in accord with local needs. This is the case of the Regional Fund for Indigenous Women of the Zirahuén Lake Region of Pátzcuaro Uarhiti Anchikurhiricha A.C. that currently attends—as a credit dispersor—1774 indigenous women who work basically in handcrafts, avocado production and livestock raising. The experience of this fund is outstanding for its evolution and reach among indigenous women. Given the breadth of the analysis of both aspects, this paper focuses only on the first: the transformation of a subsidy operating Fund into one that administers loans. The complex evolution of the Fund, its technical and financial challenges, in addition to gender problems the women who head the financial organism face, are the object of the study presented here. The results of the study show that managing the change depends on how convinced the leaders of the financial organism are of the importance of the loans as well as on their full comprehension of the demands and possibilities. Above all, however, is their conviction that the women themselves are those that should operate the Fund.
