Shapoorji Pallonji Finance Pvt Ltd
Impact Evaluation of the Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership Initiative
Partner/Client
Shapoorji Pallonji Finance Pvt Ltd (SPFPL)
Sector
CSR Foundation
Location
Maharashtra
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- SPFPL’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vision is to enable sustainable development and inclusive growth across communities by working in areas like women empowerment, education, poverty, rural development, and preserving arts.
- Since 2020, SPFPL has collaborated with Swayam Shikshan Prayog(SSP) in Maharashtra to implement two programs, i.e.: 1) the Women Entrepreneurship Development program and 2) the Water Management and Conservation program. The programs covered a total of 100 villages- 50 in the Deoni block of Latur district and 50 in the Washi block of Osmanabad district.
- To gain insights into the degree to which the programs were successful in accomplishing the goals set out at the start of the project, 4th Wheel Social Impact conducted an impact assessment and interviewed female micro-entrepreneurs owning businesses like milk businesses, grocery stores, tailoring, etc.
APPROACH
- Interviews were conducted with 220 women entrepreneurs, 20 water management beneficiaries, and 2 program managers. Focused Group Discussions were organized with program trainers, mentors as well as 20 women leaders.
- The impact of the entrepreneurship program was analyzed across 4 areas- material change to see impacts such as an increase in income or assets, cognitive change to gauge knowledge and skills, perceptual change in terms of increased confidence and self-reliance, and relational change pertaining to the extension of impacts at a community level.
- In the water management program, the impact was analyzed in terms of the increase in knowledge, shift to better water management practices, and access to irrigation.
INSIGHTS AND FINDINGS
- Of the women interviewed in the study, 93% had been married before 21 years of age and only about 7% had studied beyond 12th standard. This showed a high prevalence of early marriages and a lack of higher education in the area. Most of the women were either engaged in farming or were not engaged in any productive employment before the program.
- The women entrepreneurs were involved in businesses like milk business, textile-related, food-related, and animal husbandry through the program’s support. The highest average yearly turnover was seen in the milk business (INR. 1,19,076) while the highest average yearly profits were in the food-related businesses ( INR. 56,363).
- 57% of the businesses were self-financed, showing a lack of awareness or access to other credit options.
- In terms of material change, 89% of the women in the sample felt that their opportunities and earning capacity had increased while 87% said that their income had increased because of the program. About half the respondents had also acquired assets like electronics, machinery, etc owing to the program.
- At the cognitive level, most of the women entrepreneurs understood what risks their businesses faced. They said that they knew what financial planning meant, and 54% of them maintained a written record of their monthly finances.
- 80% of the respondents still reached out to their husbands in case of any difficulty in business operations. Almost all women felt their self-confidence had increased after starting their own business.
- In terms of relational change, very few women were part of village-level committees or engaged with community issues.
RECOMMENDATIONS / VALUE ADDITION
- For the Women Entrepreneurship program, the following recommendations across the areas of impact emerged-
- Material change could be promoted via business expansion through strategies and better access to finance.
- Cognitive change could be enabled via enhancement of digital literacy, monitoring the program interventions better, and provision of market intelligence and analysis to women entrepreneurs.
- To tackle biases and social constraints in the community, encouraging the entrepreneurs to hire more women and engage more with community issues would contribute to perceptual and relational change.
- Templates were also created for the profiling of beneficiaries and monitoring the program going forward.
- Recommendations for the Water Management program were to increase registration on the Bhujal app (measures borewell water levels) and to improve the knowledge of water-efficient crops.
