Posted by: Katherine Oglietti
Onam celebration by sangam members of the Trichur Branch, ESAF, India
Interview with:
Benita Sarah Mathew and Sandhya Suresh, ESAF, India
The Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF) is a Christian-based non-profit that takes an integrated approach to economic development, incorporating social, environmental, and public health components into their program. ESAF established its Micro Finance Enterprises Development program in 1995, which covers nine states in India. ESAF focuses its efforts on women, youth, and children.
MIX: ESAF has a greater percentage of female middle managers and loan officers than any other MFI reporting from India. Are your high rates of women staff related to gender-specific hiring policies? Are there ways in which women staff can better support ESAF's mission of targeting female clients? If so, in what ways?
ESAF: ESAF believes in providing equal opportunity to the deserving candidates irrespective of their gender, though preference is given to women candidates especially at the level of loan officers. Women are better positioned to establish rapport and build close relationships with the clients that are not merely ‘financial’ in nature. Female loan officers are able to relate to the social, economic, and emotional needs of the client as they belong to the same socio-economic strata of the society. Daughters of the sangam (village bank) members who possess essential and desirable qualifications for a required post are given the priority to serve. ESAF sangam meetings provide a platform for the women members to not only engage in loan operations, but also to share their concerns regarding their homes and communities. We believe that a female loan officer can facilitate an environment of mutual trust and ownership within the groups.
Similarly, female staff can better envision new initiatives for the welfare and overall empowerment of women clients. Thus it has been found that women staff has certainly played a vital role in successfully targeting the women clients.