This webinar constituted the third installment of the Taking Savings Groups on the Road webinar series.

Many past approaches to risk management have not been holistic in nature. Instead, they focused only on one or two areas of risk. The R4 Rural Resilience Initiative takes an integrated risk management approach to include savings as one of its core components. The webinar covered how R4 leveraged Saving for Change groups in Senegal to provide a comprehensive risk management model to smallholder farmers to strengthen their food and income security.

Saving for Change is an innovative savings groups program designed by Oxfam America, Freedom from Hunger, and the Strømme Foundation that increases resilience, financial assets and strengthens women's empowerment.

R4 Rural Resilience Initiative is a strategic partnership between Oxfam America and World Food Programme launched in December 2010. R4 involves a set of four integrated risk management strategies: risk reduction, risk transfer, prudent risk taking, and risk reserves.

The webinar featured speakers from Oxfam America and the World Food Programme:

• Sophie Romana, Deputy Director of Community Finance Department, Oxfam America
• Sophia Belay, Global Manager for the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative, Oxfam America
• Fabio Bedini, R4 Program Officer, the World Food Programme
• Tenin Fatimata Dicko, Senior Program Officer, Oxfam America (Senegal)

Taking Savings Groups on the Road is a collaborative effort between the Carsey Institute, the SEEP Network and Oxfam America to revive some of the informative and dynamic discussions from the SG2013 Conference and delve into new topics at the forefront of savings groups.