The Effectiveness of Rural Investment of Self Help Groups (SHG) on the Economic and Social Wellbeing of Women: A Case Study of Katete District – Eastern Province

Poverty and unemployment are the major problems of any under developed countries, to which Zambia is no exception. The rate of growth of women and youth employment in less developed countries is very low. This is because of the low growth rate of new and productive employment. However, the more attractive scheme trying to solve poverty matrix with less effort is “Self Help Group†(SHG). Self Help Group is a tool to remove poverty and improve the women entrepreneurship and financial support. It is a small economically homogeneous affinity group of the rural poor women voluntarily coming together to save a small amount of money regularly, which is deposited in a common fund to meet members emergency needs and to provide collateral free loans decided by the group. Self Help Groups enhances the equality of status of women as participants, decision-makers and beneficiaries in the democratic, economic, social and cultural spheres of life. This study is mainly focusing on the Self Help Group formation, women entrepreneurship and economic empowerment of women after them joining Self Help Groups in Katete district, Eastern Province – Zambia. Katete district women development association (KDWDA) is one of the pioneers for the implementation of the development of women in Katete rural areas. Presently there are 7 Clusters in Katete district consisting of 70 Self Help Groups. Of these, the best five villages were selected for this study, because the SHGs in these villages were functioning in a very successful manner. There are 1, 190 members from 70 Self Help Groups in Katete district. Among them, a total of 80 respondents were selected based on 5 members from each SHG of the selected four clusters by using convenient sampling method.