Impact
Assessments conducted in 2000 and 2003 of the SPPA Programme showed access to micro-credit plus activities had a clear and positive impact on participating households. This impact was visible a number of key areas: - Access to sanitation and use of soap. Thirty-four percent of households indicated they had improved their sanitation facilities since 2000. Improvements were small but significant, and participants showed a desire to move towards better, more hygienic facilities. All those who said they had improved their sanitation facilities indicated it was because of SPPA. - Knowledge of AIDS. Raising awareness of HIV/AIDS is one of the objectives of SPPA. The 2000 survey showed AIDS-related knowledge was much higher among SPPA members than among non-members, and over the three-year period between the two surveys it seemed that more people had become aware of the disease: 87 percent said they knew about AIDS in 2003 compared with 79 percent in 2000. Moreover, the depth of people's AIDS-related knowledge had risen: In 2000, only half of all survey respondents could name three or more AIDS transmission routes. In 2003, this figure had risen to 85 percent. - Safe drinking water. One of the programmes' main goals was to promote access to safe drinking water. The 2000 survey indicated safe drinking water was used by both SPPA members and non-members in roughly similar proportion, so the 2003 survey asked how people's water sources had changed since 2000. Results showed 42 percent of SPPA households had further improved their access to better water sources: 66 percent were using piped, tubewell, or man-power pump well water compared with only 37 per cent in 2000. In general, 97 percent of SPPA members said the project had helped them improve their drinking water source. - Health and nutrition status - Consumption of selected food items. Eating more nutritious, protein-rich foods improves the health of children, particularly girls, who sometimes are the last household members to eat. The 2000 survey showed SPPA member families were more likely to eat meat, fish, chicken, eggs, and fruit than non-SPPA families, with the 2003 survey showing a further improvement in this positive trend. Whereas only 25 percent of SPPA families reported eating meat, fish, chicken, and eggs four or more times a week in 2000, 69 percent said they did so in 2003. SPPA borrowers also reported an improvement in the quantity and variety of the food their children consumed, with one-third indicating that these factors had improved greatly. - Status of women. A key objective of both the SPPA and LPAC Programmes was to improve the status of women in the family and the community. Both assessments found clear improvements in this regard. For example, about 62 percent of women said their relationship with their husbands had improved. When asked if their husbands listened to them more than before, 83 percent answered in the affirmative in 2003 compared with only 57 percent in 2000.
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