In 2016, FSD Africa and The SEEP Network established a partnership to facilitate the creation, sharing and use of evidence for organizations supporting Savings Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa.

What We Aim to Achieve

Through knowledge mobilization, actionable learning opportunities and strengthened relationships and alliances among diverse stakeholders, the partnership aims to expand the scale, sustainability and impact of Savings Groups.

Our Approach

The project’s strategy focused on key market systems development principles, specifically the role that information, knowledge-sharing, and coordination can play in influencing the behaviors of market actors. Through the initiative, the SEEP Network generated, synthesized, and transfered knowledge to catalyze the generation of new ideas and the adoption of improved services, technologies and business models that have the greatest likelihood of systemic impact. 

Between 2017 and 2020, and with support from FSD Africa, SEEP developed 26 knowledge products (including learning briefs, case studies, practitioner toolkits, and primary research), hosted over 30 high-impact learning events (including webinars, peer exchange workshops, and national stakeholder meetings) across 9 countries, and engaged over 40,000 sector stakeholders - about 40 percent from Sub-Saharan Africa. These learning opportunities focused on 8 priority themes: access to formal finance, consumer protection, fragile and conflict-affected states, gender equality, impact, inclusion, market system approaches and technology.

Featured Resource

What We've Achieved

Learning Briefs

• A Market Systems Approach to Savings Groups
• Understanding the Impact of Savings Groups
• An Empirical Risk Assessment of Savings Groups
• A Typology of Commercial Relationships between Savings Groups and Financial Service Providers
• Typologie des relations entre Groupes d'Épargne et prestataires de services financiers
• Evidence, Hope and Hype: A Review of the Literature concerning Commercial Relationships between Savings Groups and Financial Service Providers
• Women's Empowerment and Savings Groups: What Do We Know?
• Where are the Men? How Male Engagement in Savings Groups Can Contribute to Financial Inclusion and Women's Empowerment
• Savings Groups for Refugees: 10 Tips for Development and Humanitarian Actors
• Digital Savings Groups

State of Practice Reports

• Savings Groups and the Dynamics of Inclusion
• State of Practice: Savings Groups and the Dynamics of Inclusion - Main Findings
• Savings Groups and the Role of Government in Sub-Saharan Africa

Case Studies

• Savings Groups and Consumer Protection: Government Regulation, Rules and Guidelines
• Savings Groups and Consumer Protection: Risk Mitigation through Community-Based Structures
• Savings Groups and Consumer Protection: How Savings Groups Responded to Insecurity and Theft in Madagascar
• Meeting a Refugee, a Savings Group Member and a Businesswoman
• Impressions of an Urban Refugee Savings Groups Program

Practitioner Toolkits 

• Savings Groups Technology Toolkit
• Women's Empowerment and Savings Groups: Monitoring and Results Measurement Toolkit

Research

• Banking the Group: Impact of Credit and Linkages among Ugandan Savings Groups
• Women's Empowerment and Savings Groups: An Overview
• The Long-Term Performance and Evolution of Savings Groups
• A Decade Later: The Long-Term Outcomes of Savings Groups

Peer Learning Groups

• Savings Groups: Expanding Access to Financial Services for Refugees

Webinars

• Understanding the Impact of Savings Groups
• Savings Groups and the Dynamics of Inclusion
• The Outcomes of SG Bank Linkages - Emerging Evidence
• Savings Groups in the Digital Age: Introducing the Savings Groups Technology Toolkit
• An Empirical Risk Assessment of Savings Groups
• The Role of Government in Savings Groups: Policies, Priorities and Partnerships
• What Does Consumer Protection Mean for Savings Groups?
• Women's Empowerment and Savings Groups: An Overview
• Digital Savings Groups for Scale, Sustainability and Impact
• Women's Empowerment and Savings Groups: What Do We Really Know?
• Refugees Can't Join Savings Groups...or Can They?
• Revisiting Savings Groups a Decade Later: What's Left? What Do They Look Like?

National, Regional and Global Learning Events

• Savings Groups: Beyond Financial Services (Benin)
• The Future of Savings Groups in Mozambique: A New Vision for Scale and Sustainability (Mozambique)
• SG2018: A Catalyst for the Increased Scale, Sustainability and Impact of Savings Groups in Rwanda (Rwanda)
• SG Donor Meeting: Effective Strategies to Increase the Scale, Sustainability and Impact of Savings Groups (USA)
• 2018 Global Savings Groups Conference (Rwanda)
• Policymakers Meeting: Savings Groups and the Role of Government in Sub-Saharan Africa (Rwanda)
• Savings Groups Technology Fair (Rwanda)
• Savings Groups and Women's Empowerment (Tanzania)
• Savings Groups and Women's Empowerment (Ethiopia)
• Scale, Sustainability and Impact: Applying a Market Systems Approach to Savings Groups (USA)
• Scale, Sustainability and Impact: Applying a Market Systems Approach to Savings Groups (Zambia)
• Scale, Sustainability and Impact: Applying a Market Systems Approach to Savings Groups (DRC)
• Digital Savings Groups: Scale, Sustainability and Impact (Rwanda)

The Mango Tree

Hosted by the SEEP Network, in partnership with FSDA and the Mastercard Foundation, the Mango Tree is the global resource on Savings Groups – including news, announcements, events and the most comprehensive resource library in the sector.

Meet our Partners