In 2019, SEEP convened a Peer Learning Group (PLG) comprised of both government and civil society social protection programs to explore the Role of Savings Groups in Supporting Graduation from Social Safety Nets. Members of the PLG, as listed in the acknowledgements, included representatives from the governments of Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Senegal as well as two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) – Trickle Up (working in the Sahel region, with the governments of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal) and The BOMA Project (working in Northern Kenya and Uganda). Over a period of nine months, PLG members consolidated their collective knowledge and experience, and best practices on how to integrate and expand the coverage of SGs within social safety nets policy and programming.
This paper explores the linkage of graduation participants with markets and value chains as well as the role that Savings Groups play in the process and includes some recommendations for future interventions.