In the new concept of poverty reduction, access to livelihood resources, capabilities building, security against vulnerability and equality of gender have come to be viewed as one integral process of the national plans of macroeconomic and social policies to promote growth and reduce poverty. Scholars identify the dimensions of poverty that has serious gender dimensions, such as: lack of access to labour markets and employment opportunities and productive resources; lack of access to capabilities and public services as education and health; vulnerability to economic risks and to public and domestic violence, as well as constraints on mobility; lack of representation/empowerment, being without voice and without power at the family, community and national / international levels etc. Many researchers argued that development assistance has not done enough to dismantle patriarchal structures of power and to change women’s gender identity of subordination both in productive and reproductive roles. Despite numerous cases of success in managing the village level governance and icrofinance groups, rural women of Asia still have significantly less access than men to resources, assets, services, nowledge, technology and community decision-making.

The term gender mainstreaming emerged in the early 1980s, as a concern of the international women’s movement for alternative strategies to move women’s issues out of the periphery and into the mainstream of development decisionmaking. In the years following the Beijing Conference in 1995, gender mainstreaming has been referred to as a comprehensive strategy that involves he integration of women-oriented programmes and gender issues into development institutions. Gender mainstreaming is a process to achieve gender equality and overcome the costs of women’s marginalisation. Mainstreaming requires: incorporation of gender concerns in planning, policy and implementation to provide effective rights and dignity to the disadvantaged; omen inclusive social, political and economic institutions; transformation of cultural structures of power within the home and outside; ending domestic and public violence; and recognition of women’s work (productive and reproductive) and contribution to economy as well as their economic activity etc.

Having a gender perspective means to be aware that for cultural, class, legal and/or other reasons men and women generally have different roles to fulfil, different access to and control over resources, different needs and priorities and as a result different constraints and opportunities and bargaining power in the way they relate. These differences between men and women in a household, community and society as a whole vary according to the area and target group considered. It is therefore necessary to check the local reality before designing a development tool such as microfinance and related services. Therefore, INAFI believes that the priority should be to provide financial products with characteristics and delivery mechanisms that are attractive to men and women and that they are advertised in such a way that men and women are aware of  their existence. Evaluating the impact of microfinance will then make it possible to revise the approach and add tools to increase the probability of fulfilling practical and strategic needs of women.

In such a context INAFI believes that mainstreaming gender in microfinance means MFIs must assess this changing reality and adjust accordingly. Womentargeted microfinance programmes are not gender-sensitive since they exclude men. Although these programmes may be justified as a positive measure to bridge the major gender gap, one must consider the possible perverse effects if men have no access to credit, such as hijacking of loans by men, household violence and/or delegation of income responsibilities from men to women. In view of above INAFI recommends that as a general rule the focus of microfinance
should be to offer the most appropriate financial services to both men and women in every financial scheme.

So, in summing up, it is said that unequal gender relations affect the way in which the burden of poverty is distributed, and unequal gender relations can also be the cause of poverty among women and girls in otherwise non-poor families. Thus unequal gender relations need to be addressed both as a cause and as a factor in the intensification of poverty, and focus should be given on this while planning or executing development interventions or microfinance.