Newsletter
New ECWG Brief: The Impact of Covid-19 on Opportunities for Adolescent Girls
and the Role of Girls’ Groups
Covid-19 has disrupted lives, networks, and institutions across social, economic, and health dimensions around the globe. We examine how the pandemic has affected adolescent girls and young women in particular, and explore how group-based programs for girls in low- and middle-income countries have been affected by and are responding to the pandemic.
©Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Prashant Panjiar
"ECWG Webinar on Women’s Groups and Health in India: Program Implications of a Recent Systematic Review"
The ECWG and UCL recently co-hosted a webinar discussing findings of a mixed-methods systematic review on community interventions with women’s groups to improve health outcomes in India. Dr. Sapna Desai and Dr. Audrey Prost presented a summary from a review of 99 studies, followed by a discussion of how the findings can inform large-scale programs with women’s groups implemented by the National Health Mission and National Rural Livelihoods Mission.
From Our Partners
Insights from Investments in Adolescent Girls’ Groups
Read about BMGF's Anne Sivley's qualitative analysis on Gates Foundation's 17 groups investments that broadly included adolescents, exploring the pathways to impact for girls’ groups.
Assessing the Viability of Savings Groups as a Vehicle for Women's Economic Empowerment in Africa
CARE, drawing from an extensive review of existing literature, case studies, key informant interviews and round table discussions, provides answers to two questions: 1) How can we effectively ensure that savings groups are delivering WEE outcomes? What evidence exists to show that this is possible and that it creates impact? 2) Who is best placed to scale Savings Groups that incorporate elements of the Foundation’s Women’s Empowerment Collectives (WEC) model, so they can achieve maximum impact for the poorest women and girls?
Advancing gender equality in a post Covid-19 context
Read IWWAGE's analysis on mitigating the impacts of Covid-19 on India’s women and girls through emergency cash transfers.
The current and potential role of self-help group federations in India
This paper from 3ie summarizes the findings of a rapid field study of select federations in Kerala and Karnataka to understand the current and potential role of these federations to promote high-value livelihood activities for women.
©Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Joan Sullivan
Recent research on women’s groups
Impact of financial inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of reviews
Financial inclusion programmes seek to increase access to financial services such as credit, savings, insurance and money transfers. This systematic review of systematic reviews was undertaken to synthesize the impacts of financial inclusion interventions on economic, social, gender and behavioral outcomes.
Go Green Project in Tanzania: Access To Sustainable Energy Solutions in Moshi, Hai and Same Districts in Kilimanjaro Region
This is an evaluation of the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA)-linked "Go Green" project, which was a three-year project (2017-2019) seeking to increase the number of women in Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania, who adopt and directly benefit from clean energy products through an innovative market-based approach.
UNCDF Savings Groups' Linkages Toolkit
This toolkit is a guide for Financial Service Providers (FSPs) that are either providing or intend to provide financial services to savings groups. The lessons and examples aim to enable FSPs to effectively provide formal financial services to savings groups in developing countries. The insights and lessons provided in this toolkit are based on the experiences of selected FSPs already providing services to savings groups.
Highly vulnerable children: How their caregivers’ savings group participation facilitated their well-being
This study explores the experiences of adolescents whose caregivers participated in savings groups, seeking to provide evidence of caregiver savings group participation on child well-being
Globally, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in-person events are discouraged and are currently on hold. During this period, we will share information on online events.
Listen to consortium members speak at:
How to support community/women groups for longer-term local economic recovery and resilience?
Webinar
September 9, 2020 - 830 am - 10:00 am (ET)
The CDD GSG, Rural Livelihoods and Agriculture Employment GSG and Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) at the World Bank are jointly organizing a local economic development webinar series to bring together thought leaders, policymakers and practitioners to explore pathways to transform local economies for inclusive and sustainable recovery. This webinar aims to explore how women groups and collectives are coping up with Covid-19 and discuss strategies to support them for longer-term economic recovery and resilience. The webinar will be moderated by Parmesh Shah in a fireside chat style. ECWG co-Principal Investigator Dr. Thomas de Hoop will be speaking at this event.
Delivering for Nutrition in India: Insights from Implementation Research
Webinar
September 17, 2020 - 3:30 PM (IST)
Coinciding with the national nutrition month, the third India-focused implementation research conference on “Delivering for Nutrition in India: Insights from Implementation Research” will convene academics, implementers, development partners, and policy makers from multiple institutes on a common platform. At this event, participants will review this evidence to inform the implementation of current policy and program initiatives. They will also deliberate on ways of tapping into insights from implementation research to help strengthen the maternal and child nutrition initiatives in India.
Save the date:
Mechanisms in Women’s Groups Interventions
Webinar
October 21, 2020 - 730 pm IST/ 9 am CT/ 10 am ET/ 3 pm BST
Join us for a webinar hosted by the Evidence Consortium on Women's Groups (ECWG) and University College London (UCL) Centre for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents. Speakers Lu Gram (UCL), Seema Jayachandran (Northwestern) & Lucia Diaz-Martin (J-PAL) will be in discussion with Agnes Quisumbing (IFPRI), Nirmala Nair (EKJUT) and Ben Cislaghi (LSHTM), moderated by Amber Peterman (UNC - Chapel Hill)
News and commentary on Women’s Groups in a time of global pandemic
Covid-19 and women’s self-help groups
Read about how women's self-help groups are helping out during Covid-19.
Understanding and Achieving Holistic Financial Inclusion: A Conversation with Julia Arnold
Read about the risks of leaving oral communities behind, creating truly inclusive programs, closing the gender gap in financial inclusion and how Covid-19 is transforming digital financial services.
Savings Groups in the Age of Covid-19
View this webinar with CARE, Catholic Relief Services and the International Rescue Committee to explore their response and recovery efforts related to Savings Groups, including health messaging, the integration of new technologies, cash and voucher assistance, new and potential partnerships, and more.
Kudumbashree teams launch disinfection drives
Read about disinfection drives launched by Kudumbashree Mission teams across Kerala in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Exploring savings: A Short History of Its Origins and Transformation
Read Hans Dieter Seibel, professor emeritus at Cologne University and a former board member of the European Microfinance Platform, talk about the history of savings.
Savings groups cushioning impact of Covid-19 pandemic in Zambia
Read about how communities in Zambia are turning to informal savings groups to cushion the impact of the pandemic.