Women’s groups and COVID-19: An evidence review on savings groups in Africa

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and some of the associated policy responses have resulted in significant gendered impacts that may reverse recent progress in gender equality, including in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper presents emerging evidence from studies in diverse contexts in sub-Saharan Africa —with a deep dive into Nigeria and Uganda—on how COVID-19 has affected women’s groups, especially savings groups, and how these groups have helped mitigate the gendered effects of the pandemic’s and the associated policy responses’ consequences up until April 2021. The synthesis presents evidence that savings groups found ways to continue operating, provided leadership opportunities for women during the pandemic, and mitigated some of the negative economic consequences of COVID-19 on individual savings group members. Savings, credit, and group support from other members all likely contributed to the ability of groups to positively affect the resilience of women’s group member during COVID-19. Households with a female member in a savings group in Nigeria and Uganda have coped with the crisis better than those not in savings groups. While savings groups have shown the potential for resilience during the pandemic, they often faced financial challenges because of decreased savings, which sometimes resulted in the depletion of group assets. Savings groups also contributed to community responses and provided women a platform for leadership. These findings are consistent with a recent evidence synthesis on how past covariate shocks affected women’s groups and their members. We conclude the paper by presenting various policy recommendations to enable savings groups to achieve improvements in women’s empowerment and economic outcomes, and research recommendations to address some of the current evidence gaps on how COVID-19 is affecting women’s groups and their members.

Women's groups, covariate shocks, and resilience: An evidence synthesis of past shocks to inform a response to COVID-19

“…The evidence further indicates that linkages to formal institutions can mitigate negative effects on group resilience by providing credit beyond the shock-affected resource pool. These findings are largely consistent with emerging evidence on women’s groups and COVID-19 ( Adegbite et al, 2022 ; Agarwal, 2021 ; de Hoop et al , 2021 ; Siwach et al , 2023 ), indicating that this evidence synthesis can provide important lessons for policy responses to COVID-19 in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.…”

“…We examine both immediate and longer-term effects of covariate shocks on women’s groups and their members. In this way we add to existing evidence about the short-term effects of COVID-19 on SHG savings in India ( Siwach et al , 2023 ) and how SHGs in India and savings groups in Nigeria may have contributed to mitigating some of the negative short-term effects of COVID-19 on agricultural productivity, consumption, and food security ( Adegbite et al, 2022 ; Agarwal, 2021 ; de Hoop et al, 2021 ). Triangulating the findings from those studies with the findings from the evidence synthesis allows for learning about the potential longer-term effects of COVID-19 on women’s groups and their members.…”

“…The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has highlighted that while acute covariate shocks pose unique challenges for women and women’s groups, women’s groups may provide members and their communities with tools to increase their resiliency to crises ( Adegbite et al, 2022 ; de Hoop et al, 2020 ). 1 For example, women’s groups can offer an immediate support network for members through mechanisms such as pooled resources and social capital.…”

“…Groups can adapt their in-place human infrastructure to play a key role in community responses to shocks by disseminating important information, contributing to crisis responses by providing necessary household and community services, and helping members obtain access to social protection. In the case of COVID-19, Indian self-help groups (SHGs) and savings groups in sub-Saharan Africa also contributed to producing masks, operating community kitchens, and running help desks ( Adegbite et al, 2022 ; de Hoop et al, 2020 ; de Hoop et al, 2021 ).…”

Weaving together social capital to empower women artisan entrepreneurs

“…Women, 2015). Women informal workers are beginning to join together through collective action, such as micro-credit or savings groups, to gain access to capital and other valuable resources (Adegbite et al ., 2022; Gudeta et al ., 2022; Ona and Mukhia, 2020).…”