Can Microfinance Thwart Prostitution?

BY Sarah Hernandez, November 16, 2009

Often dubbed the world’s oldest profession, prostitution has long been a thorn in the sides of civilized societies. To this day it remains a challenge for most governments to regulate regardless of social, political, or economic development. The stakes of not being able to curb the sex trade are drastically higher in third world countries due to the AIDS epidemic, and the Malawi government is introducing an innovative, if controversial, measure called the Sex Workers Bill.

Poverty is said to be the main cause of prostitution in Malawi.  It’s estimated that in poor countries an uneducated woman earns four times the amount for sex than she can from any other employment (BBC News, 2009). Patricia Kaliati, Malawi’s minister of Gender, Children and Community Development, says that the Sex Workers Bill will empower prostitutes with financial loans. The bill, which is nearing completion, is designed to provide women who leave the world of prostitution with low-interest loans, with the caveat that their loan proceeds be used to fund start-up businesses that will in turn provide an alternative means of support. Additionally, the loans should assist the women in renting homes so that they can leave brothels, and get off of the streets.

In order to aid in the success of this rehabilitation program, the bill will force women to stay off the streets with a signed memorandum that they will refrain from returning to prostitution. Program participants who are then found to be “exposing themselves to sex along the streets” will be subject to arrest. The Minister leans on a civil liberties argument to justify the program, stating “If [the women] are [having] sex behind [a man's] car, they are not enjoying [it] and it’s abusing their rights.  We don’t want the rights of women abused that way.  We need to empower them to start small businesses” (NYASA TIMES, 2009).

Women’s rights is a great secondary reason for the bill, but at the center of the need to diminish prostitution in Malawi is the AIDS epidemic. According to AVERT.org, the Malawi national HIV infection rate is somewhere between 11% and 17%, with eight AIDS-related deaths every hour.  In 2007 it was estimated that about one million people were infected with HIV out of a population of 14 million.   That makes AIDS the country’s leading cause of death, resulting in a national life expectancy of only 43 years (AVERTing HIV and AIDS, 2009).

One of the major problems surrounding the epidemic is that Malawi women are socially and economically subordinate to men, and AVERT.org asserts that HIV is pervasive among sex workers, truck drivers, fishermen and other transient groups.  Proof of this inequality is right in the disproportionately female HIV positive population. In the age range of 15 to 19, four times as many women are infected than men, and women between 20 to 25 are three times more likely to be HIV positive (AVERTing HIV and AIDS, 2009).  The Sex Workers Bill aims to address this.

While the bill’s intentions seem to be respectable, it’s been met with a wave of criticism.  Many see the government’s attempt as simply a Band-Aid solution.  They wonder what sort of successful businesses these women are going to be able to run, given that they remain unskilled and uneducated.  Others hypothesize that the program will be corrupted, and the loan proceeds filtered back into the streets. Still others question if the program has been effectively designed; if women are already committing prostitution and face potential arrest, will signing a memorandum of understanding be enough of a deterrent from prostitution? For now it’s all speculation, and only time will tell if the program is able to impact Malawi’s problem with AIDS and prostitution. Let us know your thoughts on this approach in the comments.

Works Cited

AVERTing HIV and AIDS. (2009, October 26). HIV & AIDS in Malawi. Retrieved November 12, 2009, from Avert.org: http://www.avert.org/aids-malawi.htm

BBC News. (2009, November 11). Can loans stop prostitution? Retrieved November 10, 2009 , from newsforums.bbc.co.uk: http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=7223&edition=2&ttl=20091112153049

NYASA TIMES. (2009, October 20). Kaliati says govt to table bill to support prostitutes with loans. Retrieved November 12, 2009, from Nyasa Times: http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/kaliati-says-govt-to-table-bill-to-support-prostitutes-with-loans.html/comment-page-4

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1 Comment »

1. 

   Check out an NGO called Woman Advancing Microfinance.
   http://www.wam-international.org/

   They focus on the problems that inevitably spring from the lack of female business skills and their world wide inferiority in the business world, and how to over come them.

   Comment by Ryann — January 14, 2010 @ 12:32 pm

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