Microcredit Provision, Lifelong Learning, and Productivity of Poor Women in Indonesian Villages

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the effect of lifelong, notably adult and informal, learning experiences on the business capability and productivity of poor women entrepreneurs in rural Indonesia. The measures of entrepreneurial ability of the research subjects were in terms of their engagement, as microcredit receivers, in adult learning processes through daily production and selling activities; this includes the relative earnings gained from their income generating activities. The data collected are those from 400 respondents randomly selected from microcredit receivers of Bina Artha microfinance institutes in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. The data analysis focused on examining the effect of adult learning variables in comparison to school attendance on the women entrepreneurs’ business capability. The findings showed that some forms of adult and informal learning experiences had stronger effect on the entrepreneurs’ business capability than the school attendance. In light of the findings, it is to suggest that microcredit providers arguably should provide relevant skills training to improve lifelong learning experiences of microcredit receivers. This recommends that microcredit providers should take into account the benefits of lifelong learning experiences of microcredit receivers as one of the most important criteria for granting loan extension.