Impact Evaluation of the Saving for Change Program in Mali
This report provides a joint summary from the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona and Innovations for Poverty Action on impact of the Saving for Change program in Mali, which seeks to enable women to organize simple self-managed savings and credit groups.
Saving for Change (SfC) is a community savings group program designed and implemented by Oxfam America, Freedom from Hunger, and the Strømme Foundation. SfC operates in 13 countries in West Africa, Latin America and Asia with the largest programs in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, followed by Senegal, Benin, Cambodia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, and Guatemala. This final impact evaluation of the SfC program in Mali is the result of a unique, collaborative research effort led by development economists based at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and applied anthropologists at the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) at the University of Arizona. The study was commissioned by Oxfam America and Freedom from Hunger and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The innovative, mixed methods approach adopted in the study design is the first of its kind to combine in-depth qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluate a community microfinance program over a span of three years (2009-2012). This report provides a joint summary of the overall findings that combines results and analysis from both teams, as well as individual quantitative and qualitative reports from each research group.
This is an evaluation of our Saving for Change Program (SfC).