Microenterprise Bill Approved by Senate - Women's Congressional Policy Institute

On November 20, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, a bill (S. 3027) designed to improve the results and accountability of microenterprise development assistance programs. Sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH), the Microenterprise Results and Accountability Act of 2004 contains a number of findings regarding the importance of microenterprise to women:

Microenterprise development assistance programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have encouraged women’s participation in microfinance projects and, according to USAID data, women have comprised two-thirds or more of the microloan clients in agency-funded microenterprise projects since 1997;
Microenterprise programs have been successful and should continue to empower vulnerable women in the developing world. USAID should work to ensure that recipients of microenterprise and microfinance development assistance communicate and work with nongovernmental organizations and government organizations to identify and assist victims of trafficking, as well as women who are victims of, or susceptible to, other forms of exploitation and violence; and
Given that microenterprise programs have been successful in empowering disenfranchised groups such as women, microenterprise programs also should target populations disenfranchised due to race or ethnicity in countries where a strong relationship between poverty and race or ethnicity has been demonstrated, such as countries in Latin America.

S. 3027 would authorize programs to provide “assistance on a nonreimbursable basis for programs in developing countries to increase the availability of credit, savings, and other services to microfinance and microenterprise clients lacking full access to capital, training, technical assistance, and business development services.” The bill would establish an Office of Microenterprise Development at USAID and would authorize $25 million for the office to establish a program “under which assistance is administered directly by the office, including through targeted core support for microfinance and microenterprise networks and other practitioners.”