IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jodeso/v30y2014i1p91-114.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Nexus of Female Capital and North–South Labor Migration in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed Tufeiru

    (Argosy University, USA)

Abstract

The phenomenon of female head-load portaging in the large commercial cities of Southern Ghana has become a social canker. This article explores the role access to capital plays in the labor relocation of women from northern to Southern Ghana to engage in street head-load portaging, with the goal of examining the potential of microfinance to reverse this trend. Using a phenomenological study design and semi-structured interviews of 15 migrant women porters in Accra, the results revealed that lack of access to capital is a major determinant in the labor migration decisions of female head porters. Also, the study revealed that migrant female porters have a strong desire to obtain capital from microfinance versus savings from head-load portaging. The implications for positive social change include informing development practitioners and policy makers of the importance of microfinance as a prospective remedial policy to address the phenomenon of north to south female labor migration that contributes to the head-load portage syndrome and the inherent degradation this occupation creates for women in Southern Ghana.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed Tufeiru, 2014. "The Nexus of Female Capital and North–South Labor Migration in Ghana," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 30(1), pages 91-114, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:30:y:2014:i:1:p:91-114
    DOI: 10.1177/0169796X13504680
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0169796X13504680
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0169796X13504680?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kati Schindler, 2010. "Credit for What? Informal Credit as a Coping Strategy of Market Women in Northern Ghana," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 234-253.
    2. Medeiros, Marcelo & Costa, Joana, 2008. "Is There a Feminization of Poverty in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 115-127, January.
    3. Marguerite S. Robinson, 2001. "The Microfinance Revolution," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28956.
    4. Johnson, Susan, 2004. "Gender Norms in Financial Markets: Evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1355-1374, August.
    5. Jessica Schicks, 2007. "Developmental Impact and Coexistence of Sustainable and Charitable MFIs - Analysing BancoSol & Grameen Bank," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/94191, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Richard U. Agesa & Sunwoong Kim, 2001. "Rural to Urban Migration as a Household Decision: Evidence from Kenya," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 60-75, February.
    7. Jessica Schicks, 2007. "Developmental Impact and Coexistence of Sustainable and Charitable Microfinance Institutions: Analysing BancoSol and Grameen Bank," The European Journal of Development Research, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 551-568.
    8. Jones, Gareth A. & Dallimore, Anthea, 2009. "Wither participatory banking?: experiences with village banks in South Africa," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 23354, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cao-Alvira, José J. & Deidda, Luca G., 2020. "Development of bank microcredit," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    2. Ganna Sheremenko & Cesar L Escalante & Wojciech J Florkowski, 2017. "Financial Sustainability and Poverty Outreach: The Case of Microfinance Institutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 230-245, January.
    3. JJ. Cao-Alvira & LG Deidda, 2013. "Financial liberalization and the development of microcredit," Working Paper CRENoS 201324, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    4. Sheremenko, Ganna & Escalante, Cesar L. & Florkowski, Wojciech J., 2012. "The Road to Financial Sustainability. Comparative Analysis of Russia and the Caucasus Region," 2012 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2012, Birmingham, Alabama 119525, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    5. Jiguang Wang & Bing Ran, 2019. "Balancing Paradoxical Missions: How Does Microfinance Rebuild a Sustainable Path in Poverty Alleviation?," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, June.
    6. Caserta, Maurizio & Monteleone, Simona & Reito, Francesco, 2018. "The trade-off between profitability and outreach in microfinance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 31-41.
    7. Sheremenko, Ganna & Escalante, Cesar L. & Florkowski, Wojciech J., 2012. "The Universality of Microfinance Operations Model in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Financial Sustainability vs. Poverty Outreach," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 123286, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Knar Khachatryan & Vardan Baghdasaryan & Valentina Hartarska, 2018. "Is the model loans-plus-savings better for microfinance in ECA? A PSM comparison," Working Paper c5a69366-4231-479c-879d-c, European Microfinance Network.
    9. Baldi, Guido & Sadovskis, Vairis & Šipilova, Viktorija, 2014. "Economic and Employment Effects of Microloans in a Transition Country," MPRA Paper 52736, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Michael Lokshin & Mikhail Bontch‐Osmolovski & Elena Glinskaya, 2010. "Work‐Related Migration and Poverty Reduction in Nepal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 323-332, May.
    11. Asad K. Ghalib & Issam Malki & Katsushi S. Imai, 2012. "Microfinance and its role in household poverty reduction: findings from Pakistan," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 17312, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    12. Dehejia, Rajeev & Montgomery, Heather & Morduch, Jonathan, 2012. "Do interest rates matter? Credit demand in the Dhaka slums," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 437-449.
    13. Schreiner, Mark & Woller, Gary, 2003. "Microenterprise Development Programs in the United States and in the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1567-1580, September.
    14. Lutz G. Arnold & Benedikt Booker, 2012. "Good Intentions Pave the Way to ... the Local Moneylender," Working Papers 126, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    15. Mohamed, Toka S. & Elgammal, Mohammed M., 2023. "Credit risk in Islamic microfinance institutions: The role of women, groups, and rural borrowers," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    16. Morvant-Roux, Solène & Guérin, Isabelle & Roesch, Marc & Moisseron, Jean-Yves, 2014. "Adding Value to Randomization with Qualitative Analysis: The Case of Microcredit in Rural Morocco," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 302-312.
    17. Simon Zaby, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Global Knowledge Base on Microfinance: Influential Authors and Documents, 1989–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-21, July.
    18. Wijesiri, Mahinda & Yaron, Jacob & Meoli, Michele, 2017. "Assessing the financial and outreach efficiency of microfinance institutions: Do age and size matter?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 63-76.
    19. Gyorgy Molnar & Attila Havas, 2019. "Escaping from the poverty trap with social innovation: a social microcredit programme in Hungary," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1912, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    20. Branker, K. & Pathak, M.J.M. & Pearce, J.M., 2011. "A review of solar photovoltaic levelized cost of electricity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 4470-4482.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:30:y:2014:i:1:p:91-114. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.