Principal investigator: Viviane Pires Ribeiro
Article title: The Role of Mediators in Women's Access to PRONAF Mulher
Article authors: Anita Brumer and Rosani Marisa Spanevello
Location of the intervention: Brazil
Sample size: 4 surveys
Sector: Genre
Type of Intervention: Women's access to PRONAF Mulher
Primary variable of interest: Supply and demand for credit
Evaluation method: Other
Evaluation Context
In 1996, the Federal Government replaced the Program for the Enhancement of Small Rural Production (PROVAP) with the Program for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF) with the aim of providing family farmers with conditions to increase productive capacity, generate employment, and improve income. Given the low participation of women as beneficiaries of the Program, in May 2001 a decree from the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) established that a minimum of 30% of the Program's credits should be allocated to women. However, this goal was not met, although female participation among credit recipients increased.
The PRONAF Mulher program was created in the 2003/2004 Harvest Plan and consists of additional resources allocated to family investment projects that include activities to be developed by women. Initially, PRONAF Mulher was operated only by Banco do Brasil, which loaned R$ 2.540.609,00, corresponding to 469 operations (an average of R$ 5.417,10 per operation) to women from families classified in Groups C and D. Of these operations, in the 2003/2004 harvest, 80,2% were concentrated in the Southern region of Brazil. In the 2004/2005 Harvest Plan, 2.486 contracts were made, totaling R$ 21.585.505,00 loaned (an average of R$ 8.282,83 per operation). Of these contracts, 78,4% corresponded to group C, 19,9% to group D, and 1,7% to group E. Regarding regional allocation, there was a better distribution of contracts compared to the previous harvest, with 40,2% of operations carried out in the South region, 29,7% in the Northeast region, 17,8% in the Central-West region, 7,9% in the Southeast region, and 4,4% in the North region.
Intervention Details
The institutional environment is an important aspect in the mediation process between the supply (by the Federal Government) and the demand for credit (by family farmers), being formed by extension agents, rural workers' unions, fishermen's associations and non-governmental organizations, public and private mediators. This institutional environment can be responsible for a considerable part of the lack of financing, whether due to a lack of knowledge of the procedures or even the existence and characteristics of the financing. In this context, Brumer and Spanevello (2012) analyze the institutional environment of agricultural financing aimed at women in family farming in Brazil. The authors focus, within this institutional environment, on the mediators between the federal government and borrowers – mainly banks and rural extension agencies – who enable an understanding of the difficulties and obstacles existing in the path to financing for family farmers, especially women.
Methodology Details
To achieve the study's objective, Brumer and Spanevello (2012) present the history of PRONAF and the PRONAF Mulher credit line. Subsequently, the authors examine the institutional environment of financing, based on results from three studies conducted in the Northeast region (Romano; Buarque, 2011; Abramovay, 2002; Silva et al., 2006) and also on a qualitative study that the authors themselves conducted in the South region in 2009 and 2010. The data used in the previous research were collected through interviews with extension agents from rural extension agencies (EMATER and EPAGRI), bank employees responsible for rural credit, presidents of Rural Workers' Unions, and women benefiting from PRONAF Mulher in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
Results
Research conducted by Brumer and Spanevello (2012) identified that the reasons for the difficulties women face in obtaining financing from PRONAF Mulher, according to the mediators interviewed, are due to: a lack of professionals in the agencies to conduct economic feasibility studies of activities other than those already carried out on the properties; the risk of women becoming indebted if the new activity does not become profitable or has a reduced consumer market; the absence of dialogue with women requesting credit, especially when their requests are directed by their husbands; difficulties in the relationship between the workers and the male mediators; and the lack of follow-up and technical assistance after the credit is released.
Lessons in Public Policy
To address the difficulties in obtaining financing from PRONAF Mulher due to a lack of professionals, Brumer and Spanevello (2012) emphasize that the mediators themselves affirm the need for a specific person to work with credit for women, paying attention to their expectations and being able to work with alternative income-generating projects, outside of traditional activities, and diversified within the same region, such as agro-industry of baking, cheese making, handicrafts, rural tourism, among others.
Regarding the difficulties in the relationship between female workers and male mediators, the data reveals a tendency that, when the mediator is female, female rural workers are less afraid to express their proposal or desire regarding the productive activity in which they would like to apply the credit. Furthermore, female extension agents frequently facilitate the rural worker's search for information; they have greater ease of communication or perceive the needs of women more easily, which is a positive point when it comes to access, and can effectively help in an autonomous project for the woman.
ReferencesBRUMER, Anita; SPANEVELLO, Rosani Marisa. The role of mediators in women's access to PRONAF Mulher. Revista Antropológicas, v. 23, n. 1, 2012.
