Saving for Change Program in WEST AFRICA

Oxfam America’s | Saving for Change program IN WEST AFRICA

Saving for Change is Oxfam America’s signature savings-led microfinance program. Members—primarily women living in rural communities—form a group that saves, lends, and pays dividends to its members. Group members elect their own leadership, set their bylaws, and decide collectively how to achieve their goals.

Oxfam trained its first Saving for Change cycle, usually eight to 12 months, members (SfC) group, in Mali, in April 2005. Since divide the fund and the accrued interest then, SfC has grown to include more among themselves, before they begin the “”We need to support than half a million mem-bers across next cycle. The program adheres to a strict five countries: Cambodia, El Salvador, ethic of self-sufficiency and provides no women. … You must Guatemala, Mali, and Senegal. In Mali external capital to the groups. give knowledge and alone, a seed grant from the Stromme SfC recognizes that poor people in the Foundation, followed by funding from the the path to something developing world are not, in fact, too Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, positioned poor to save. It is common practice, for else. [With Saving for SfC as one of the largest microfinance example, for farmers to use savings to initiatives in Africa in terms of number Change] women will survive between the harvest and the next of participants. planting season. The trouble is that money help themselves through SfC enables poor women in rural areas kept in traditional savings mechanisms their savings. to improve their savings habits by encour- (i.e., livestock, jewelry) erodes with inflation aging them to save what they can afford, and that the value of these investments —Village chief which can range from a few cents to a is volatile. Through SfC, instead of losing few dollars a week. The group savings value on their savings, members earn accumulate to form a fund that the group a return by lending their money to other uses to make loans to members. Women group members. As women meet, they generally invest the loans in microbusi- learn to manage their groups, and they nesses or use them for health emergencies develop bonds of mutual assistance and or household expenses. A group-defined solidarity. SfC is as much about building interest rate charged on each loan adds social capital as financial inclusion. to the group fund. At the end of a savings What is Oxfam? Oxfam is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Together with individuals and local groups in more than 90 countries, we save lives, help people overcome poverty, and fight for social justice. Oxfam America is one of the 15 affiliates in the international confederation Oxfam. To join our efforts or learn more, go to oxfamamerica.org.

Efficiency and innovation in Social capital savings groups to ensure the long-term West Africa Through group participation, women well-being of rural communities by further acquire new leadership skills, report empowering women. To this end, Oxfam Sustainability greater confidence in speaking in public, is building on the SfC platform by offering SfC groups become sustainable by and gain the ability to participate more members complementary programming to demonstrating their capacity to function, actively in household decision making. enable them to tackle their most pressing grow, and replicate years past the Ongoing monitoring and evaluation needs and achieve sustainable livelihoods. involvement of a facilitating agency. Most suggests that members consider the groups master the financial methodology benefits of increased solidarity and Agricultural pilot within approximately one year. mutual assistance provided by the group In 2010, in response to the rapid decline to be as important as the savings and in soil fertility in the Sahel region of Low costs lending component. Africa, deforestation, and climate change, SfC controls costs by supporting individual Oxfam introduced a set of sustainable, participants, known as replicators. Financial assets productivity-enhancing measures in Mali Replicators are savings group members Flexible savings and loans help SfC that draw from the same principles of who form and train most of the groups, members to build a financial asset base simplicity, low cost, and replication as the serving as volunteers or receiving payment that stabilizes consumption, increases SfC program. Oxfam’s aim is to increase directly from the groups they train. resilience to economic shocks, and food security in SfC communities by generates income. improving agricultural production and, Integrative methodology where feasible, by linking products to new In Mali, SfC’s success comes in part Service platform markets. Moving ahead, Oxfam will test the from its foundation in traditional forms of In Mali and Senegal, SfC groups learn efficacy of the following pilot measures: about malaria prevention and treatment financial services known as tontines, which • Introduction of short-cycle varieties through a curriculum developed indepen- have operated with no external support of common crops, like millet and dently by Freedom from Hunger. The for centuries. Tontines collect an agreed- cowpeas, to guarantee food security upon payment from members and pay malaria curriculum helps members of that amount to each member in turn. SfC savings groups improve their understanding • Design and implementation of members quickly understand and adopt of the causes of malaria, share what they water-management systems for the program’s methodology because it is have learned within their communities, and vegetable gardens take action to prevent and treat the disease. based on principles that they already trust. • Use of hedges (organic fences) to protect crops from animals Customized teaching materials Saving for Change’s new Oxfam partnered with Freedom from • Intercropping of bushes and trees to initiatives: Beyond savings Hunger—an organization with extensive increase soil fertility SfC participants report substantial benefits experience in adult learning—to develop a Because SfC places great importance from their group membership, including pictorial manual so replicators who are illit- on women as agents of their own the ability to buy food to tide them over erate can train groups effectively. The train- advancement, this pilot seeks to empower between harvests, pay school fees, and ing ensures that members work together to members, not only by teaching them new purchase medicine. Oxfam believes that it develop bylaws to run their groups. An oral techniques, but also by training them can build on these achievements and use record-keeping system makes it possible to to become agricultural replicators— track accounts without written ledgers. the critical mass of women organized into individuals who train men and women in • Building communication and their community on the new technologies. negotiating skills In doing so, Oxfam’s aim is to help women • Gaining an understanding of one’s “”Thanks to SfC, there gain new leadership skills and elevate status as a citizen their role in society. Women will finance is cohesion between these agricultural pilots through their • Learning the importance of accountability women. We didn’t used group savings and loans, thus boosting • Learning how to identify and analyze financial activity in the savings groups and to visit each other. Now if a collective problem and make a case strengthening connections between the for change a woman has a problem, two initiatives. In addition, Oxfam sees great potential 2-3 representatives (of Business and leadership pilot in collaboration among savings groups to the SfC group) go to During the course of participatory take up issues of importance in their com- research, women consistently voiced an munities. Oxfam will strengthen existing visit her to support and interest in business training. With the networks of savings groups so members advise her. input and expertise of group members, in may learn better management techniques 2010 Oxfam designed business modules to ensure the financial and collective viability —Group member for well-established savings groups. To of their group associations. ensure the transfer of adequate skills to members, Oxfam incorporated a Research and evaluation leadership component focused on gender, establishing the crucial combination of Reaching and training over half a million leadership and business training. individuals is a major accomplishment, yet it is important that Oxfam document not Key components of the business only how SfC expands but also its impact curriculum include: on participants. • Starting and running a successful Oxfam partnered with the Bureau of individual or collective business Applied Research in Anthropology at • Financing one’s business and the University of Arizona to carry out managing the budget longitudinal anthropological studies in 12 villages, comparing villages that have • Creating a successful product established SfC groups with villages that • Setting a competitive selling price to have not. Innovations for Poverty Action at make a profit Yale University is also working with Oxfam to compare 500 SfC and non-SfC villages Key components of the leadership as part of a randomized control trial. curriculum include: • Building self-confidence and learning what makes a good leader These studies will present information • Changes in levels of children’s schooling women’s livelihoods through collective about the impact of SfC on the factors action. As part of this research, Oxfam will listed below, with results expected in 2013: • The development of social capital and undertake a value-chain analysis among the effects on women’s empowerment savings groups in Mali to identify markets • Extent of outreach to the poorest for their products and to increase women’s village women • Any unintended consequences earning potential. In addition, Oxfam is • Changes in the sources and amounts part of a consortium of nongovernmental of saving and lending Moving forward organizations that is promoting the Building on its success, Oxfam intends to SfC model in Africa and Latin America. • Effects on agricultural production, expand SfC in Mali. Over the next three Through such efforts, Oxfam hopes to small-scale trading, and other income- years, Oxfam will take the agriculture leverage the capacity of other international generating activities and the business and leadership and local organizations to promote a • Changes in household food security pilots to hundreds of villages, while program that enables poor women to use also working with its global network their financial and social capital to better • The transmission of SfC through social of affiliates to enhance the scope of their lives. networks and its impact on social capital current interventions. For example, • The use of health care and changes in affiliate research staff are identifying and health status promoting best practices for strengthening

To learn more about our Saving for Change program, go to oxfamamerica.org/savingforchange.

Photos: Jeff Ashe / Oxfam America (p1, above right), Rebecca Blackwell / Oxfam America (p2, p3, above left)