Islamic Microfinance Institutions and Women's Empowerment: Addressing Challenges and Prioritizing Solutions

This study analyzes the challenges in empowering women with Islamic Microfinance and formulates priority solutions. The challenge analysis was conducted on six aspects including: regulation, empowered women, Institutional Microfinance Institutions (IMFIs), IMFIs (programs), business, and finance. Employing a qualitative approach, this study utilized the Delphi Analytic Network Process (DANP) involving 12 experts from academia, practitioners, associations, and regulatory bodies. Three primary challenges in women's empowerment were identified: first, empowered women face challenges managing their time due to domestic and economic responsibilities (0.324); second, IMFIs have a limited outreach, resulting in constrained empowerment information (0.321); and third, women lack knowledge and skills to manage their finances. To address these issues, three priority solutions are proposed: first collaboration among IMFIs to offer mentoring (0.237); second, development of social programs by IMFIs (0.236); and third, provision of expert mentors by IMFIs.