June 2002

Microfinance and Households Coping with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe: An Exploratory Study

Study Methodology

The study involved reanalysis of survey data collected under USAID’s Assessing the Impact of Microenterprises Services (AIMS) Project (Barnes 2001). The AIMS assessment focused on Zambuko Trust, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that provides small-sized loans and business management training to Zimbabwean microentrepreneurs. The survey covered 338 Zambuko clients and 241 matched non-client microentrepreneurs who were interviewed in 1997 and re-interviewed in 1999. The non-client respondents were randomly selected among those who met Zambuko’s basic eligibility criteria,¹ and non-clients were matched with clients according to gender, enterprise sector, and neighborhood.

Because of the sensitivity of the topic and the difficulty of measuring directly whether households are affected by HIV/AIDS, proxy indicators were used to classify the survey respondent households as HIV-affected or non-affected. The proxy indictors included chronic illness of an adult household member, death of an adult household member, and absorption of orphans or sick persons into the household.

The respondents resided in Harare, Chitungweza, Bulawayo, and Mutare. The survey data were supplemented by focus groups in these same urban areas with 140 randomly selected Zambuko clients and with 33 Zambuko loan officers and branch managers in late 2000 and early 2001, and by interviews with senior managers of Zambuko. At a September 2001 forum in Harare, representatives of MFIs, HIV/AIDS service organizations, and donor organizations in Zimbabwe discussed the implications of the findings.

¹The individual must own an enterprise that is at least six months old, not be employed full-time elsewhere, and not have a loan for their enterprise from any other source.

	Print this page
@	E-mail this page

This page updated
19 Oct 2007