Abstract
Women empowerment is a pivotal issue of developing counties, particularly in Asia and Africa. Zero poverty and
gender equality are the distinctive goals among SDGs of UN. Considering the empirically tested impact of
microfinance on women empowerment in different regions of the world, this paper assesses the impact of microfinance
on empowerment and poverty alleviation in women living in Pakistan. This impact has been analyzed comprehensively
with better empirical methodology (Ordinary Least Square – OLS and Propensity Score Matching – PSM) and
comparatively a larger cross-sectional dataset of 670 respondents. From the values of the responses, Multidimensional
Poverty Index (MPI) has been developed to assess the multidimensional poverty levels of the respondents. Results
showed that exposure to microfinance has a positive impact on women empowerment, poverty alleviation, and social
status of women by raising their income level. Therefore, it is concluded that microfinance and MFIs are considered
to be an effective mechanism for attaining the SDGs in Pakistan.
Muhammad Umer Niaz, Mazhar Iqbal. (2019) Effect of Microfinance on Women Empowerment: A Case Study of Pakistan, Paradigms , Vol 13, Issue 1.
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