ReliefWeb

INTRODUCTION

Women are on the Move in West Africa, organizing to fight poverty and social injustice in their communities. Increasing numbers of women and girls are mobilizing in savings groups in order to provide for their families. As a result of their financial empowerment, they are rising up to make their voices heard in decisionmaking processes, and fighting to achieve gender equality and influence policy makers. Across West Africa, the same phenomenon is taking place: women and girls are on the move to make a better future— savings groups are at the heart of this movement.

CARE’s first savings group model was launched in 1991 in Niger by CARE Norway, known as Matu Masa Dubara (MMD), which can be translated as “Women on the Move”. The savings groups, based on the traditional “tontine” approach of collective savings, became known as Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs). VSLAs are made up of 15-30 members, predominantly poor, rural women who come together every week to save money, access loans and contribute to a collective insurance fund. Learn more about CARE’s VSLAs: https://youtu.be/CbEeC8xXdZ8. The groups have been a major driver of women’s economic empowerment and serve as a platform for financial inclusion and improving health, nutrition, and agricultural productivity. The MMD movement has also enabled women to use their voices, defend their rights, and participate in decisionmaking processes at local, national and regional levels.

In the 25 years since CARE introduced savings groups in Niger, more than 3 million women and girls have become economically empowered and have seen their lives transformed as a result of their group membership. Over the next four years, CARE and our Women on the Move partners aim to expand savings group membership to 8 million women in West Africa, or 18 percent of the total women in the region (without Nigeria) whose circumstances mean they would benefit from joining a savings group.

Take the example of Oumou, a 32-year-old mother of six from Niger. Married at the age of 14, she received little schooling and doesn’t know how to read or write. She doesn’t often participate in household decisions, and when her husband married off their oldest daughter at 12 years old, she didn’t dare to voice her objections. After her trading activities failed, she was no longer able to pay for her children’s schooling fees, and four of her children dropped out of school. In July 2017, Oumou joined the newly formed savings group in her village. She was inspired by the successful women she knew who were members of savings groups. Oumou says, “I hope to see my life changing for the better. And to see all these challenges I am facing become part of my past.” Oumou is at the beginning of her journey as a member of a savings group, but there are many more stories of women just like her who are part of a movement to empower women and girls in West Africa. Watch Fatchima’s story in a virtual reality film entitled Women on the Move that premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017: https://www.jauntvr.com/title/ecb0103a4f.