Women Saving for Resilience consolidates evidence and supports innovation for improved, gender intentional COVID-19 recovery efforts in Africa.

Why It's Needed

Globally, 80% of Savings Group members are women, and the experience of Savings Groups during times of crisis – including conflict, natural disasters, and epidemics – demonstrates that they are, in fact, the primary safety net for millions of women in Africa, especially in rural areas.

In order for the COVID response and recovery efforts of Savings Groups and their partners to effectively mitigate the disproportionate and multi-dimensional effects of the pandemic on women, they must be gender intentional.

What We Aim to Achieve

Women Saving for Resilience (WS4R) is a two-year program designed to improve the technical, adaptive, and collaborative capacity of Savings Groups – and organizations that work with them – to respond to and recover from the gendered effects of COVID-19. Ultimately, we aim to improve the resilience of women in Africa to the ongoing pandemic and future disease outbreaks.

Learning Objectives

The program identifies, generates and consolidates experience relating to:

• The gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Savings Groups and their members, specifically along health, economic and social dimensions
• How participation in Savings Groups has enabled women to mitigate the primary and secondary effects of the pandemic
• How Savings Groups have responded to the crisis, what adaptations they have made, and the implications for female members
• How Savings Groups have been engaged in gender intentional response and recovery efforts – by governments, civil society organizations, or the private sector

Our Approach

The program includes three main activities:

Peer Learning Group

SEEP will facilitate 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.

Innovation Fund

The SEEP Network received nearly 300 proposals to the WS4R Innovation Fund, representing a wide breadth of experience and solutions from across the globe. After an extensive review, we are delighted to announce that WS4R innovation grants have been awarded to DreamStart Labs, ElleSolaire, Global Communities, World Renew, and the Zoological Society of London. 

The awards support innovative COVID response and recovery efforts related to Savings Groups, in the areas of women’s livelihoods, voice and leadership, violence against women, digital Savings Groups, crisis and emergency risk communications, access to finance, and clean energy. 

Advocacy

The advocacy component of WS4R recognizes the importance of going one step further – the active translation of learning to practice. The lessons generated from the program will be harnessed to influence decisions in program design, community engagement, and policymaking, at scale – at both the global and local levels. The SEEP Network will host over 20 local and national learning events, coordinate a decentralized advocacy campaign implemented by SEEP member organizations, and provide program partners long-term capacity-building and mentoring in gender intentional civic mobilization.

Meet our Partners

Women Saving for Resilience (WS4R) is a two-year program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by the SEEP Network in partnership with MarketShare Associates.