The Gendered and Social Dynamics of Digital Savings Groups

Oct 14, 2020 | by The SEEP Network

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Digitization is the future of Savings Groups across the globe. Some regions will transition sooner than others, but one day soon digital record-keeping will be the standard.

Hosted on women’s financial inclusion day during Financial Inclusion Week 2020, this webinar explored the gendered and social dynamics of digital Savings Groups, based on a six-month study by the International Center for Research on Women.

Project partners presented findings and key insights in three specific areas:

• The gendered effects of digital Savings Group solutions
• Rethinking key roles within digital Savings Groups
• The different impacts of transitioning mature groups to digital vs. forming new digital Savings Groups

The research was conducted by ICRW, working with Savings Groups supported by PCI in the Mara region of Tanzania, an extremely rural area with high poverty, low literacy, and limited experience with mobile technology. The study followed two sets of Savings Groups that adopted the DreamSave application. The first set of groups were mature Savings Groups that had been using paper records for several years, and then switched to DreamSave (“Paper-to-Digital”). The second set of groups were trained directly on the DreamSave application (“Born Digital”).

Speakers

Julia Arnold
Senior Director, Gender and Financial Inclusion, Center for Financial Inclusion

Julia leads research and policy discussions within CFI and the inclusive finance industry. She leads a diverse research team that builds on and defines new areas of knowledge and evidence. Before joining CFI, Julia was a Financial Inclusion and Livelihood Specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, she designed, led and supported research on women’s economic empowerment. Prior to this, she was a Financial Inclusion Consultant working with a diverse range of clients such as MetLife Foundation, CGAP, the World Bank, CFI, and others. Julia holds a Master’s degree in International Development from American University in Washington, DC.

Dennis Mello
Director of the Women Empowered Program at PCI, a Global Communities Partner

Dennis leads PCI’s Women Empowered Program, a global Savings Group program that focuses on the social and economic empowerment of women. In this role, he provides technical and programmatic support to projects in eight countries. Dennis holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master’s Degree, focused on international economic development, from the University of California, San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy.

Wes Wasson
Chief Executive Officer, DreamStart Labs

DreamStart Labs is a social-impact technology company that helps people achieve their dreams of a better life. Wes has 20+ years of senior executive experience and was voted “Top Executive Leader in Silicon Valley” in 2010. Wes also ran an award-winning microfinance non-profit in rural Africa where he developed an extensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges of developing regions. DreamStart Labs was created to bring world-class technology to underserved markets with excellence, integrity, and scale. His company’s market leading DreamSave application for Savings Groups is currently in use in several countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

This webinar was hosted by the SEEP Network
as a pre-conference event for the Savings Groups Technology Fair.