Webinar: The Evidence,Based Story of Savings Groups A Synthesis of Seven Randomized Control Trials on Vimeo.

Savings groups have been operating for decades, giving access to fair and effective financial services to over 7 million people worldwide. Numerous studies have documented the impact of savings groups on the lives of their members, yet only recently have these impacts been studied through a series of RCTs, which allow us to confidently attribute the impact to the program intervention.

The results of these RCTs have been consolidated into a research synthesis that provides an overview of the findings in one concise document, now available here for download. It also places the RCT results within the broader body of evidence about the role of savings groups in the lives of their members. In this webinar, Megan Gash of Freedom from Hunger and Kathleen Odell of Dominican University, co-authors of the research synthesis, presented the main findings from the RCTs as summarized in the synthesis, helping to draw commonalities across the experiences and offering a unique opportunity to discern broader implications for the field. They focused on key impact findings as well as implications for savings group programming going forward. Michaela Kelly of Plan International offered a commentary on how these results are being used by the practitioner community and how they are helping to inform and improve programs.