AIM Contributions to Women Household Empowerment in Malaysia

Abstract

The study investigated to explore the contributions of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) microcredit on the household empowerment of the borrowers at the East Coast Region in Malaysia. The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches based on primary data from the field. There are 384 samples of AIM’s borrowers were collected from the Terengganu, Kelantan, and Pahang in East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Malaysia. The present study has used descriptive statistical and women empowerment index. The women empowerment index (Households Empowerment Index) employed to measure the level development of the status of women in household decision-making contexts. The study summarized that AIM’s credit has contributed towards the ‘improvement of empowerment of women in all categories of Households issues. The present study recommends policy considerations for the successful and effective operation of microfinance programs through the increase of proper income generating activities, sufficient amount of access to credit, create self-employment opportunity in Malaysia.