Under the Women Saving for Resilience initiative, SEEP is facilitating a Peer Learning Group (PLG) on “Savings Groups, Women and COVID-19,” composed of diverse sector stakeholders representing governments, civil society, and private sector organizations across Africa. Over a period of about 18 months, the PLG will consolidate the collective experience of its members, draw upon the expertise of technical experts, test and assess hypotheses, and document and disseminate the group’s learning for the benefit of the wider sector.

The SEEP Peer Learning Group on Savings Groups, Women and COVID-19 has selected two topics of investigation that we will spend the next year investigating, around which we will identify best practices, and for which we hope to develop and disseminate guidance through the SEEP network and financial inclusion sector.

These key topics are:

Women’s Voice and Leadership

• How do savings groups empower women, and how can they be leveraged as a vehicle for women’s collective action and wider social empowerment?
• What needs to happen to make women’s voices and actions central in the COVID response and recovery efforts, and in other shocks and crises? What key actions can development organizations take to support this? What other actors or stakeholders should have leading roles?

Strengthening Savings Group Resilience to Shocks

• What do savings groups need in terms of support services and measures before, during, and after times of crises to ensure their continuation and success? What should be scaled post-COVID / post-crisis to build resilience in the financial sector more widely?
• How can technology and financial services be leveraged to support savings groups in times of crises? What are the opportunities and limitations of digital and non-digital formal financial services in a crisis context such as COVID? How are they affected differently and similarly to savings groups, and how can the entire financial system be made more resilient?

Do you have experience to share?

We seek tools, case studies, and project examples that have been successful or from which you have learned much related to these topics.

Please share your insights and materials for one or both topics in this short survey by November 1. Kindly also include your contact information so we can follow up with questions or for more information.

Thank you,

SEEP Savings Groups, Women and COVID-19 Peer Learning Group