Women Economic Empowerment Through Saving and Loan Association

Loka Abaya is one of the chronically food insecure district found in Sidama Zone of South nation and nationalities region (SNNPR), Ethiopia. As a result CARE Ethiopia together with its partner was implemented the livelihood base project entitled PSNP Plus. Among the key project components promoting VSLA is the one that play as a push factor to empower the chronically food insecure HHs to make informed sound decisions. The central theme of the program, VSLA, is to create a financial service access to members, mainly for women members, from their savings as a result they can enter into market. In the district the project established 153 VSLAs which comprises 3221 rural households (1656 women and 1665 male). Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the contribution of VSLA to empower women economically and to evaluate the empowerment status of VSLA¿s women member in the study area. For the study two Kebles among the nine project intervention Kebles in the district and 60 women members from 10 VSLAs were selected.