The Commercializing Renewable Energy in India (CREI) project is aimed at strengthening local entrepreneurial capacity for sustained commercial operation of rural energy enterprises that harness renewable energy technologies to service productive use applications in selected areas of southern Andhra Pradesh (AP), India. The distinguishing feature of this project is that it links the commercializ...

S mall businesses form the foundation of most rural and urban economies. To grow and prosper, these enterprises need access to equity capital as well as the debt capital provided by traditional banking institutions. While debt markets function well in most rural places, rural equity markets tend to be unorganized or nonexistent (RUPRI Rural Finance Task Force). The impetus for the Rural Policy ...

In Gambia, women groups are the core of developmental activities. The role of women in micro financing for poverty alleviation has long been recognized as vital approach to household welfare. Microfinance generally refers to the provision of financial services (e.g. savings, credit, insurance) to the poor especially women who normally do not have easy access to formal financial institutions. In...

1 Background The dynamic role of rural small and medium enterprises (RSMEs) in developing countries has long been recognized (Kayanula and Quartey, 2000). These RSMES can serve as engines through which the economic growth and employment objectives of developing countries can be achieved. However, for many years these rural enterprises have failed to grow beyond their micro enterprise nature and...

Household Access to Microcredit and Child Work in Rural Malawi This paper examines the effect of household access to microcredit upon work by seven to eleven year old children in rural Malawi. Given that microcredit organizations foster household enterprises wherein much child labor is engaged, this paper aims to discover whether access to microcredit might increase work by children. It is foun...

t he study examined factors influencing the adoption of improved cassava processing technologies. interview schedule was used to collect information from 100 rural women involved in cassava processing. the average age of the respondents was 51 years and majority (77%) had formal education. the women’s main source of information on the improved cassava processing technologies was through the wia...

Women represent about 40% of the total labor force in Taiwan. The majority of women employment is concentrated in manufacturing and service sector such as commerce and social or personal community work. Small and medium enterprises in Taiwan accounted for 97.8% of the total enterprises and employed about 78% of the total work force. Small and medium enterprises have played a crucial role in eco...

The aim of the research was analysis of rural women’s role in paddy cultivation practices in Tonekabon Township. Research population was consisted of paddy farmers women in Tonekabon Township (N=14539), whose 130 ones were selected using Cochran’s formula. Data were gathered by cluster random sampling method. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire which its validity was confirme...