Women's Economic Empowerment

Graduation with Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Development (GRAD): Midterm

The Feinstein International Center for Tufts University commissioned a Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of the USAID-funded Feed the Future project entitled Graduation with Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Development (GRAD). The project is being implemented by a consortium of seven partners1 under the leadership of CARE in sixteen Woredas in four regions across Ethiopia (Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region). Under a Strategic Objective to graduate 50,000 chronically food insecure households from the government's Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and increase each household’s income by $365 per year, the project has three components, to (1) increase economic options for targeted households through value chain development and access to capital from micro-finance institutions and village-based savings and credit groups, (2) strengthen household and community resilience through interventions targeting women's empowerment, nutritional status, climate change adaptation and household aspirations, and (3) strengthen the enabling environmental to facilitate sustaining and replicating the impact of the project. The total project cost at approval was US$ 23,400,000 for a period of five years from 5 December 2011 through 4 December 2016. [55 pages]
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Lend With Care (LWC) Assessment Project Akhuwat Islamic Microfinance Report

This report is part of the Lendwithcare (LWC) assessment project and focuses on the evaluation of LWC Pakistani partner, the microfinance institution AIM Islamic Microfinance (AIM). The report was prepared by the University of Portsmouth (UoP), partner in the project, after a second wave of a household survey to a sample of AIM clients who have been supported by the LWC crowdfunding platform.

The study sample included 500 new AIM clients and 100 non-clients, first interviewed in 2015 by a team of independent interviewers recruited from local universities. The second wave of interviews took place in 2017, after all the clients had completed repaying their first loan (20 to 22 months later). [21 pages]
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Lend With Care (LWC) Assessment Project Thrive Report

This report is part of LENDWITHCARE (LWC) assessment project and focuses on the evaluation of LWC partner in Zimbabwe, THRIVE Microfinance. The report was prepared by the University of Portsmouth (UoP), partner in the project, after a second wave of a household survey to a sample of THRIVE clients who have been supported by the LWC crowdfunding platform.

The study sample includes 341 new THRIVE clients and 157 non-clients, first interviewed in 2016 (April to June) by a team of interviewers recruited from a local university. The second wave of interviews took place approximately one year later (June to August), when some of the clients were starting to repay their third loan. 245 clients and 110 non-clients were available to be interviewed. [25 pages]
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Promoting Opportunities for Women’s Economic Empowerment Project Endline Analysis of Effects of Linkage

This report contains an endline analysis of CARE’s POWER/PROFIR (Promoting Opportunities for Women’s Economic Empowerment) project on the financial health of village savings and loans groups in Cote d’Ivoire and Rwanda. The project is collaboration between CARE Canada, Access Africa, and MasterCard Foundation. CARE International is one of the world’s leading organizations in the promotion of Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Africa, reaching more than 3.5 million people in 26 countries. [39 pages] Read More...

Promoting Opportunities for Women’s Economic Empowerment Project Analysis of Effects of Linkage

This report focuses on the effects of CARE’s POWER/PROFIR (Promoting Opportunities for Women’s Economic Empowerment) project on the financial health of village savings and loans groups in Cote d’Ivoire and Rwanda. The project is a collaboration between CARE Canada, Access Africa, and MasterCard Foundation. CARE International is one of the world’s leading organizations in the promotion of Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Africa, reaching more than 3.5 million people in 26 countries. CARE’s POWER project aims to determine the relative benefit of formal financial links for savings groups, households and individuals, and banks in Burundi, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Rwanda. However, this report only focuses on the two latter countries. For Rwanda, CARE‘s POWER project is called PROFIR (Promoting Financial Inclusion in Rwanda). [49 pages] Read More...

Mémoire de Fin d’études pour l’Obtention du Diplôme de Master Professionnel en Pastoralisme

La présente étude menée en zone pastorale dans les communes de Bermo et Gadabédji vise à analyser la dynamique organisationnelle des femmes en zone pastorale et de caractériser le rôle que peuvent jouer les groupements féminins dans la prise de décision et l’entrepreneuriat pour ces femmes. Une enquête a été réalisée auprès de 146 femmes membres de groupements féminins à travers des questionnaires individuels mais aussi auprès des femmes non membres (53) et des hommes pour avoir leurs perceptions. Il ressort que 97,3% des femmes membres de groupements féminins interrogés ont affirmé que la pratique d’activités génératrices de revenus (AGR) a amélioré leur relation au sein du ménage et 43,2% ont détecté le renforcement de leur participation aux prises de décisions dans le ménage. 61% des femmes membres de groupements féminins ont affirmé avoir adhéré au groupement pour financer une AGR et 51,4% ont dit que leur adhésion a été motivée par imitation. Il résulte ainsi que les motivations sociales et économiques constituent le pivot de la participation des femmes aux groupements féminins. Les caisses des groupements constituent également un rempart en cas d’urgence ou de crise même pour les non membres. Cette importance reconnue aux groupements de femmes fait qu’ils sont socialement acceptés par toutes les couches. Read More...

BRIDGES Project Baseline Report

CARE International commissioned a consultancy to conduct the BRIDGES baseline study in Mogadishu, Garowe, Galkacyo, Kismayo and Hargeisa Districts in December 2017. The main objective of the baseline study was to establish a baseline measurement for the BRIDGES project objectives, results and indicators which will be used as benchmarks against which progress of achievements, as well as impact, effectiveness and efficiency of the project will be measured and evaluated using verifiable indicators presented in the logical framework during the project implementation phase. The specific objectives of the baselines study were:
1. Determine the baseline status on all indicators as established in the project’s log-frame
2. To review the relevance, feasibility and targets of indicators established in the project’s
log-frame and provide recommendations on possible improvements
3. To provide a baseline understanding of the market/employment situation
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Chiva Pa Doi Project Endline Report

Chiva Pa Doi (meaning “the heart of the highlands”) is a project implemented by CARE in Thailand since 2014, with the financial assistance of the Chanel Foundation, in support to women empowerment and entrepreneurship in remote villages in the highlands of Northern Thailand.

Through this project, conducted in 10 villages of Galayani Vadhana, Mae Chaem, and Om Koi Districts of Chiang Mai province, CARE supported close to 187 individuals (182 women and 5 men) to design and implement income-generating activities, while building their capacities to run businesses and conceive marketing strategies. The initial hypothesis was that through this approach, the beneficiaries would ultimately diversity their sources of income and therefore improve their overall financial stability and wellbeing. The project also aimed to enhance women empowerment by building their capacity so that they can gain self-confidence, contribute increasingly their household’s incomes and have a greater say in household and community level decision making. [31 pages]

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Impact Assessment of Savings Groups

Researchers from IPA, along with CARE staff and their implementing partners, conducted a randomized evaluation of Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) programs in Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda to examine two questions: Who joins savings groups? And, what is the impact on households from programs that promote savings groups? The evaluation used a randomized control trial (RCT) design, in which eligible communities were randomly divided into two sets: a set of villages with access to a VSLA program (the treatment group) and a set of villages where the program was not implemented during the study (the control group). The study started in Ghana in 2008 and in Malawi and Uganda in 2009, and the final data collection took place in 2011 in the three countries. Each site included a panel survey in which households were surveyed before the start of the program implementation and again two or three years later. Over 15,000 households in almost 950 communities were surveyed. The surveys covered a large variety of topics, including health, education, income-generating activities, asset holdings, food consumption, non-food expenditure, intra-household decision making and community involvement. At the time of the endline survey, after an average of two years of program implementation in the three sites, one third of respondents had joined a VSLA group. On average, members had been part of a group for 15 months and 61% of members had gone through a full savings cycle, normally lasting between 8 and 12 months. The evaluation should thus be thought of as assessing the relatively short-term impacts of the intervention. [62 pages] Read More...

State of Practice: Savings Groups and the Role of Government in Sub-Saharan Africa

Savings Groups are community-based financial service providers that deliver basic financial services to millions of members in underserved markets worldwide. Traditionally, the promotion of Savings Groups has been led by national and international NGOs and a large extension network of community-based trainers. In recent years, governments across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have deepened their engagement with Savings Groups, recognizing the potential of the community-based microfinance model to contribute to national financial inclusion strategies and development agendas. This state of practice report provides a comprehensive overview of government interventions in the sector across Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018, the authors conducted an extensive desk review and interviews with 46 government representatives from 22 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This report identifies and describes 74 government initiatives in the Savings Group sector, across 20 countries1 in Sub-Saharan Africa. [64 pages] Read More...

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