This paper deals with the impact of self-help groups (SHGs) in apple production on empowering women in the Chencha district of Southern Ethiopia. Impact is traced on the basis of a cross-sectional survey among SHG members and nonmembers, using propensity score matching. Apart from the attitudinal changes among SHG and non-SHG women, we also scrutinize differences in male attitudes concerning the status of women. The results point towards positive and significant impacts of SHG participation on empowerment at the community level, which suggests that SHGs offer an effective space for women to share information and raise awareness about their rights. This could in turn be harnessed collectively to negotiate more "room to maneuver" in the community. At the same time, however, the data hint at negative effects from group participation at the household level. The attitudinal differences between treatment and control group indicate more conflictive relations between spouses, arguably due to an intensified fight to assert control over household resources. Hence, the evidence is consistent with a potential "backlash effect" from husbands.

The aim of the paper is to test the importance of social networks in the acquisition of technical know-how among apple growers in Southern Ethiopia. What contribution do social networks make in knowledge transfer alongside more formal sources such as training and education? We take special interest in the role of faith-based networks, as apple cultivation was originally introduced into the study area by individuals and organizations linked to the Protestant church. The network effect is proxied by the frequency of contact of an individual producer ('ego') with his/her most salient resource persons ('alters') as well as the number of visits to their orchards. We find a positive relation between both types of social interaction and knowledge acquisition, although the efficacy of these varies with the producers' level of education. Protestant producers have been able to maintain a knowledge advantage with respect to Orthodox Christian producers ever since apple cultivation took off in the 1990s.L'objectif de cet article est de tester l'importance des re ´seaux sociaux pour l'acquisition de connaissances techniques chez les producteurs de pommes dans le sud de l'E ´thiopie. Quelles sortes de contributions apportent-ils aux transferts de connaissances, mis aux co ˆte ´s de sources plus formelles telles que les formations professionnels et l'e ´ducation? Nous portons un inte ´re ˆt particulier au ro ˆle des re ´seaux religieux, car la culture de la pomme fut initialement introduite dans la zone de recherche par des individus et organisations lie ´es a `l'e ´glise protestante. L'effet des re ´seaux est de ´pendent sur le nombre de visites a d'autres vergers et sur la fre ´quence du contact entre un producteur individuel (« ego ») avec ses personnes-ressources les plus saillantes (« alters »). Nous trouvons que les deux types d'interactions sociales ont un effet positif important sur l'acquisition des connaissances, bien que leur efficacite ´varie selon le niveau de formation des producteurs. Les producteurs protestants ont pu maintenir un avantage par rapport aux chre ´tiens orthodoxes depuis que la culture de pommes a de ´colle ´dans les anne ´es 1990s.