Impact studies conducted on Save the Children programs and on other similar microfinance programs, show the positive impact of women-focused microfinance on children.

• In a study conducted in Uganda in 2001, Barnes, Gaile, and Kibomo found that more than 50 percent of microfinance program clients used earnings from their microenterprises to fund their children’s education.
• The Women’s Empowerment Project, a project in Nepal which incorporates savings, credit, and literacy, showed 68 percent of their clients had greater power over family planning and send their children to school (2002).
• According to a WEDTF (Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Trust Fund) report conducted in 2000, female microfinance clients use 55 percent of their increased income on household items and food, 18 percent on school fees, and 15 percent on clothing.
• A study of BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advance Commission) clients in 2001, found that members and their families are less likely to suffer from severe malnutrition and the extent of severe malnutrition declined as the length of membership increased.
• Save the Children’s Impact Study on Zakoura Fondation conducted by Fouzi Mourji in 2000, found that among clients 40 percent of profit from their enterprises was allocated to food. Dietary improvements were therefore among the greatest reported impacts on clients’ households. Clients also fared far better than non-clients in terms of their children’s school attendance.
• ASHI, a microfinance institution in the Philippines that exclusively targets extremely poor women, found that 77 percent of incoming clients were classified as “very poor” (living on less than $1 a day); after two years in the program only 13 percent of mature clients were still “very poor” (2000).