Country: Nigeria

Regional economic hubs in sub-Saharan Africa

Recent years have seen large scale de-risking and financial exclusion happening in developing countries, particularly those countries that most need capital flows to finance social services, aid and development.

Where regional economic hubs are de-risked, it has a profound effect on the developmental outcomes for the hub itself as well as the spoke countries it is integrated with.

To stem the risk of illicit financial flows (IFFs), the threat of being de-risked and the corresponding knock-on effect on capital flows, it is important to ensure that there are adequate regulatory frameworks in place to promote a robust level of financial integrity in a way that does not undermine inclusion.

This two-note series explores the effect of de-risking and illicit financial flows on capital markets and the role of regional economic hubs to address financial integrity issues.

The previous note highlights the relationship between de-risking, illicit financial flows and capital flows in the context of regional economic hubs.

In this second note, Identifying regional economic hubs in Africa, dives into the concept of a regional economic hub, exploring the methodologies for determining which countries are hubs within their respective regions.

Despite the importance of hub economies, very little has been published on the identification and analysis of hub systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Regional economic hubs can be defined as countries that play a significant role in the economy of the broader region and have been found to help facilitate the movement of capital. They tend to have the most developed financial markets in the region as well as more favourable or developed regulatory environments. Hence, they act as gateways for capital to flow into the countries they are integrated with (i.e. their spoke countries). This interconnection between regional economic hubs and spokes can help create stable financial flows for countries in a region and contribute to the development of their financial systems.

This work forms part of the Risk, Remittances and Integrity programme in partnership Cenfri.

De-risking in Africa: Illicit financial flows and regional economic hubs

Recent years have seen large scale de-risking and financial exclusion happening in developing countries, particularly those countries that most need capital flows to finance social services, aid and development.

Where regional economic hubs are de-risked, it has a profound effect on the developmental outcomes for the hub itself as well as the spoke countries it is integrated with.

To stem the risk of illicit financial flows (IFFs), the threat of being de-risked and the corresponding knock-on effect on capital flows, it is important to ensure that there are adequate regulatory frameworks in place to promote a robust level of financial integrity in a way that does not undermine inclusion.

This two-note series explores the effect of de-risking and illicit financial flows on capital markets and the role of regional economic hubs to address financial integrity issues.

This note highlights the relationship between de-risking, illicit financial flows and capital flows in the context of regional economic hubs.

The next note, Identifying regional economic hubs in Africa, dives into the concept of a regional economic hub, exploring the methodologies for determining which countries are hubs within their respective regions.

Capital flows, or moves between capital-rich and capital-poor countries depending on the opportunities for return on investment, and are important for economic development. These capital flows can consist of official capital flows, which include official development assistance and aid in the form of grants or loans, as well as private capital flows such as bank and trade-related lending, foreign direct investment, portfolio investments and workers’ remittances. Foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign aid and remittances are the major capital inflows in Africa. Such inflows play an important role in regional economic development. Between 2000 and 2017, FDI contributed an average of 3.4% to regional GDP in sub-Saharan Africa, with foreign aid and remittances contributing an average of 3.3% an2.3% respectively. These capital flows support job creation, skills and technology transfer, provide financing for government budgets and contribute to long-term economic growth. Capital flows are affected by the risk or perceived risk of illicit financial flows. Regional economic hubs can act as channels for IFFs, thereby in effect regionalising IFFs.

While Note 1 relies on the methodologies explored and utilised, Note 2, provides more details and specifics on the concept of economic hubs.

This work forms part of the Risk, Remittances and Integrity programme in partnership Cenfri.

Viability of gender bonds in sub-Saharan Africa

A landscape analysis and feasibility assessment

Gender bonds are broadly defined as bonds that support the advancement, empowerment and equality of women, though no official definition exists. Like other themed bonds, they can be issued as senior unsecured notes referencing the balance sheet of the issuer, but where proceeds are ring-fenced for specific use on eligible ‘gender’ activities, or as securitisations referencing a pool of assets directly.

The state of the market

There are currently no dedicated guidance principles on how to issue a gender bond, nor any specific eligibility criteria for use of proceeds. Most bonds issued with a gender label have so far relied on the ICMA’s Social Bond Principles, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals or the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles as reference standards.

As of March 2020, 13 gender-labelled bonds have been issued by a variety of entities, ranging from large commercial banks to NGOs, to multilateral development banks. These can be grouped into three categories:

The majority of gender bonds issued so far address financial inclusion of women and female entrepreneurship in emerging markets or access to leadership positions and gender-positive
corporate policies in developed markets. Missing from the market are companies that provide goods and services which disproportionately benefit women or bonds which look at women in the issuer’s supply chain.

Reporting on the impact of gender bonds also needs further attention. For financial inclusion bonds, few bonds go beyond the ‘loans disbursed’ metric to look at the impact they have on women’s lives. Similarly, for corporate behaviour bonds, it is not always clear whether the companies being lent to are required to improve on their current performance, and if so, how and at what rate.

By making it easy for both investors and issuers to understand what a gender bond is, the potential for market growth increases significantly.

While there is some interest in gender lens investing, no gender bond has yet been issued in sub-Saharan Africa. In our assessment, we focused on the countries with the most developed capital markets and most likely chance of success in the short and medium-term: Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

We concluded that issuance in a local market will not be straightforward outside of South Africa, due to mismatched expectations and relatively conservative investors:

Africa green bonds toolkit

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, requiring far more capital than governments alone can provide. Private sources of finance are needed. Tapping into the international capital markets, as well as domestic capital, will be critical.

Green Bonds are one tool that can offer the African capital markets an opportunity to leverage private capital at scale towards building a more climate-resilient, greener economy. Green Bonds have been an effective financial instrument to moving institutional capital to priority economic sectors in the global economy, promoting the development of climate-resilient, low carbon infrastructure that allows for equitable and sustainable development. Globally the green bond market has grown tremendously in recent years, with issuances totalling USD257.7bn in 2019 (CBI, 2020).

In 2020, we partnered with the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) to develop a practical guide to issuing green bonds for Africa. This Green Bond Toolkit has been developed to provide the African capital markets with guidance on how to issue green bonds that are in line with international best practices and standards. The Toolkit provides a backdrop to the development of the market and features successful examples of green bond issuances that have emerged out of Africa – such as Acorn Holdings in Kenya and Access Bank in Nigeria.

FSD Africa also supports Green Bond programmes in Nigeria and Kenya, click here to read more.

Islamic finance toolkit

The Islamic finance industry has expanded rapidly over the past decade where its total assets reached over $2.1 trillion in 2018, spreading across dozens of countries and covering primarily Islamic banking, capital markets, and insurance sectors.

Islamic finance has also been integrated within the global financial system as a universal alternative financial proposition appealing to Muslims and Non-Muslims alike. In fact, many international financial hubs including London, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg, have created enabling environments for Islamic finance to thrive in their jurisdictions and issued sovereign Sukuk (Islamic bonds) to further support their Islamic finance infrastructure.

However, despite having great potential in the continent, the Islamic finance industry in Africa remains relatively underdeveloped where its share of the industry’s total assets is around 1% in spite of Africa being home to 27% of the world’s Muslim population. Similarly, Africa accounted for only 2.2% of global Sukuk issuances between 2001 – 2017, showing the underdevelopment of Islamic capital markets in the continent and signifying the untapped potential of Sukuk in the region.

In an attempt to address the aforementioned challenge, we sponsored the development of this Islamic Finance Toolkit by Islamic Finance Advisory & Assurance Services (IFAAS) for the benefit of the African policymakers and regulators to demystify the key founding principles, structures, and products of Islamic finance, shed light on the industry potential in Africa, and how Islamic finance could be used to achieve the key strategic development objectives of African governments.

DMAC Toolkit: Unleashing the power of data to transform your business

With more data being created at a faster rate than ever before, it can be hard for financial service providers (FSPs) to know what to do with the plethora of data available to them. FSPs are capturing large amounts of data on their internal systems and also have access to external data – as a result of improved connectivity and increasing smartphone penetration, as well as through publicly available external data (e.g. national surveys).

However, many FSPs are not making full use of this data as they may not understand its full potential, have information overload, inefficient processes and systems, and think it is expensive to make use of data. The toolkit aims to help FSPs understand the different data sources available to them and how to use them effectively to transform their business.

Although primarily aimed at FSPs, the toolkit may also be of use and interest to those who provide services to FSPs in their respective markets (such as data management and research firms) and other organisations wanting to implement programmes that encourage FSPs to make more and better use of data.

The toolkit draws on the valuable learning gained through the Data Management and Analytics Capabilities (DMAC) programme that uses data-driven evidence to help FSPs in sub-Saharan Africa to design inclusive and affordable financial products and services that respond to the needs of unserved and under-served adults, with a particular focus on women and youth.

Sustainable economic development in Africa depends on long-term finance

Posted on by Kihingu Inc

Long-term finance is vital to driving Africa’s economic growth and development. Africa currently faces significant long-term finance gaps in the real and social sectors. FSD Africa estimates that the funding gap for SMEs, infrastructure, housing and agribusiness is over USD 300bn per year that is currently not being met.

Significant strides have been made during the past decade to enhance financial inclusion across Africa. These improvements in the outreach of financial markets were made possible due to the rapid uptake of digital financial services. The use of new delivery modes, such as agent banking and mobile phones, to send and receive payments has completely reformed the financial sector’s outreach to remote, previously excluded users. While still more at the experimental stage, digital platforms increasingly enable the provision of financial services relating to savings, credit and insurance.

However, although inclusion of a large segment of the population as senders and recipients of dal payments certainly serves to empower a previously marginalized segment of the population, it does little to promulgate the core function of financial markets. The purpose of financial intermediation is to enhance the economy’s productive potential by facilitating more optimal allocation of scarce resources. Channeling capital to the most needed uses will contribute to meeting investors risk/return objectives while also augmenting the growth potential of African economies.

When compared to the ‘inclusion revolution’ of the last 10-20 years, progress in enhancing access to investment finance resulting in greater productive employment has been disappointing. Increasing the availability of long-term finance will support investments in the housing, infrastructure and enterprise sectors thereby, directly creating job opportunities. In addition, such investment in social and real sector projects will enhance productivity, and thereby contribute to poverty alleviation through potential sustained increases iosable incomes.

One of the key challenges faced by investors has been the lack of good quality information and information asymmetry on long-term finance. Enhancing domestic capacity in the provision of long-term finance is crucial to filling the sizeable long-term financing gaps that apply almost universally to the African infrastructure, housing and enterprise sectors. Only by harnessing the contribution of long-term finance made available by the private sector will African countries effectively leverage the limited resources made available by the public sector and by donors. Often, African policymakers are confronted with challenges in balancing large and invariably well-justified expenditure demands with very limited fiscal resources, and as a result governments resort to domestic security issuance to fund their current expenditures.

As investors find it more attractive to put their money in ‘risk-free’ government-issued securities, increased issuance of such securities reduces the willingness of loinvestors (banks and institutional investors) to take part in funding risky productive investments. In order to stem this ‘crowding out’ of risk-capital by the government, a concerted effort is required to strengthen management of fiscal resources; to better utilize existing sources of long-term funding, as provided by banks and institutional investors; as well as to develop new sources of domestic funding. Over time capital market financing may come to play a larger role in filling the financing gap that exists in developing economies, provided the approach adopted is appropriately tailored to the development challenges faced by small, underdeveloped markets.

In conclusion, the objective of promoting sustainable economic growth and job creation through greater provision of long-term finance is crucial for Africa and its people. It is imperative that decision-makers, both policymakers, investors, development finance institutions as well as development partners embrace measures that will enhance productivvestment in support of Africa’s economic development.

The Long-Term Finance Initiative

We have collaborated with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance (CAHF) to support the Long-Term Finance Initiative, which has two main interventions:

  1. The Long-Term Finance Scoreboard:

The purpose of the Scoreboard is to assemble information about the sources and uses of long-term finance in Africa – whether provided by governments, donors, foreign direct investors or the domestic private sector. Previously, information and data on the availability of long-term finance in Africa has been scarce, spread across numerous sources, or simply unavailable. Thus, the intention of the long-term finance initiative is both to bring together existing sources of information as assembled by third parties and to augment the availability of data as regards long-term finance through collection of primary data. The Scoreboard also provides bench-marking that will facilitate comparison of how countries are performing vis-à-vis one another, thereby engendering interest and applying peer pressure among countryakeholders.

The purpose of the Scoreboard is to provide information to policy makers, private investors – both domestic and foreign investors – and development partners to support their decision-making as regards investments in Africa. The pilot website currently under development will be published in the coming months with a view to soliciting feedback and enhancing the scope and quality information provided.

Link to the live and online scoreboard: http://afr-ltf.com

  1. In-country diagnostics:

The purpose of in-country diagnostics is to identify effective ways to deepen local markets for long-term finance. By mobilizing local, private sources of finance and more effectively leveraging funding provided by the public sector, African economies will gradually be able to reduce reliance on donor funding and foreign direct investment. The diagnostic framework is based on a comprehensive approach to long-term finance that ranges from contributions of governments, donors, and private sector funding, whether provided by local or foreign investors, to funding intermediated by banks and capital markets, and other sources of private finance, such as private equity or venture capital.

The intention is that country diagnostics will inform country reform programs and create momentum for dialogue among key public and private sector stakeholders, thereby enhancing the focus and effectiveness of implementation efforts.,

Value for money approach for the FSD network

Posted on by Kihingu Inc

Financial Sector Deepening programmes (FSDs) face increasing pressure to show that they provide value for money (VfM). This includes demonstrating that they are delivering their interventions efficiently and achieving their desired development impact. To achieve this, strengthening of internal procurement processes, as well as monitoring and results measurement (MRM) approaches, continue to be key areas of focus.

With these objectives in mind, FSD Africa commissioned the development of a new VfM approach, as a resource for the FSD Network – a group of FSD programmes including eight national programmes in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia and two regional programmes (FinMark Trust in Southern Africa, and FSD Africa).

The approach was developed by Oxford Policy Management (OPM) and Julian King & Associates, building on OPM’s approach to assessing VFM. This approach treats VfM as an evaluative question about how well resources are being used, and whether the resource use is justified. Addressing an evaluative question requires more than just indicators – it requires judgements to be made, supported by evidence and logical argument.

The VfM approach emphasises evaluative reasoning as a way to make robust judgements, transparently and on an agreed basis. It involves developing definitions of good performance and VfM, which are agreed in advance of the VfM assessment. The definitions include criteria (aspects of performance) and standards (levels of performance) developed specifically for the FSD context. Criteria and standards provide a systematic framework to ensure the VfM assessment is aligned with an FSD programme’s theory of change, collects and analyses the right evidence, draws sound conclusions, and tells a clear performance story.

FSD programmes are complex and their performance depends not just on quantitative indicators of delivery (such as number of projects completed) but also on the quality of implementation (e.g. sound adaptive management to respond to a changing environment and to act on emergent opportunities and learning). A mix of evidence is necessary to support well-informed, nuanced judgements about FSD performance and VfM.

Indicators play an important role in measuring some aspects of FSD performance. But restricting a VfM assessment to indicators alone would run the risk of missing important information about the quality of delivery and outcomes – for example, focusing on aspects of performance that are easy to measure at the expense of aspects that are important but difficult to quantify.

Therefore, the new VfM approach accommodates a mix of indicators and narrative evidence. The approach seeks to maximise use of rigorous evidence from existing MRM frameworks. It is aligned with the FSD Network’s MRM frameworncluding  Impact-Oriented Measurement  (IOM) Guidance (on how FSDs can better measure their contributions to changes in the financial markets they seek to influence), and the FSD Compendium of Indicators (setting out a common theory of change and related measurement framework that form the basis of common indicators to track FSD outcomes and impact).

The VfM approach is designed to support accountability as well as reflection, learning and performance improvement across the FSD network. It can also be used to systematically identify areas where MRM systems can be improved, to provide better evidence and benchmarking of sound resource management, delivery, outcomes and impacts.

The VfM approach is detailed in our new VfM Framework and Guide. The VfM Framework explains the conceptual design and rationale for the approach. The Guide sets out a practical, user-friendly, step-by-step approach for design, assessment and reporting on VfM. These documents will support a consistent approach to VfM assessment and reporting across the FSD Network, while retaining sufficient flexibility to reflect differences in context.

These frameworks have undergone rigorous development and testing over the past 18 months. As detailed within the documents, this has included a consultative process with FSDs and donor agencies, a staged approach to framework development with input from all FSDs, a full-day workshop with FSD MRM teams (at the FSD Conference in Livingstone, Zambia, November 2017), and piloting of the approach during 2018 with FSD Moçambique, FSD Uganda, Access to Finance Rwanda, and FSD Africa.

It is hoped that FSDs will use this comprehensive VfM assessment approach to support accountability, learning, improvement, and making investment decisions. The FSD MRM Working Group serves as an ideal community of practice to support effective and consistent application of the approach.

Using development capital to finance sustainable growth in Africa

Posted on by TIMOTHYRADIER

There is much talk lately about blended finance, the use of capital from public or philanthropic sources to increase private sector investment for sustainable development. I was on a panel earlier this year when one of the speakers described it as ‘the trampoline that can give you the bounce needed to launch.’

Smart deployment of blended finance not only provides early capital to sustainable solution but can guarantee long-term financing by attracting private and institutional investors.

FSD Africa Investment’s form of blended finance, development capital, is designed to invest in untested, breakthrough ideas that we believe can have a transformative impact on the continent’s sustainable growth. Our investment works to take early stage risk, allowing other sources of risk capital to invest in high-impact financial sector intermediaries and business, alongside us. Why is this important?

Africa needs investment capital with different risk/return profiles

Reaching the S require private and institutional capital to invest in structures that achieve development outcomes in a financially sustainable way.

We invest in high-potential businesses that are often deemed too risky for commercial investment.  The ‘trampoline effect’ makes it easier for commercial capital to flow to ventures that now match their risk/return profiles.  For example, our investment in <a”https://fsdafrica.org/programme/mfs-africa/”>MFS Africa, a remittance payments provider, enabled them to close their Series B round, and grow to raise capital in future funding rounds.

African SMEs need early stage risk capital

For investors seeking returns, Africa is a continent of opportunity, but also high risk.  Medium and SMEs account for 90%1 of Africa’s businesses and contribute to 40% of GDP, as well as creating 80% of the continent’s employment. The reality, however, is that the majority of African SMEs are in the early stages of their development, with investment needs between USD 50,000 and USD 500,000, but struggling to access capital to expand and grow into larger and more sustainable companies as they are deemed to high risk.

Our mandate is to change this perception, by testing new and alternative financing structures that can make investing in Africa’s SMEs more attractive to investors.

Africa needs investments in businesses that will increase access to basic services

The majority of people in Afrnot have access to affordable health services, opportunities to save for old age, safe water and clean energy or housing. With a projected population of 2.4 billion by 2050, the need has already surpassed the ability of governments and development finance institutions to address this crisis.

FSD Africa Investments development capital is critical to engaging the private sector, as well as institutional and impact investors, to fund businesses and products that can expand access to basic services for everyone. For example, we are already investing in an affordable housing finance company and a micro-pensions start-up.

Africa needs more private sector solutions for climate change

Millions of vulnerable people are falling into poverty as a direct consequence of climate change. Extreme climate conditions are affecting livelihoods – with loss of property, income, access to clean water and a safe environment. Trillions of dollars of investment are needed to combat climate change. We need to move quickly towards renewables, sustainable agriculture and energy efficiency.

We deploy development capital to mobilize financial resources into financial platforms and solutions to mitigate the causes of climate change and to adapt to its effects, reducing its impact.

Africa’s needs to harness its own sources of capital

Foreign Direct Investments to Africa have been on a downward trend over the last five years, falling from USD 74 billion in 2013 to 42 billion in 2017. Yet, Africa has large pools of its own capital through savings, insurance, pensions contributions but very little of thisoney finds its way back to the real sector or into alternative asset classes, such as private equity funds.  Finding investment platforms that use blended finance structures to manage the risk/return profiles would support a better allocation of this capital to the real economy.

Unlike many development finance institutions, we have a primary mandate to drive impact, which is secondary to the need to create return on our investments. We invest in order to drive impact and create solutions to the most pressing challenges facing Africa’s financial markets.

By stimulating and increasing the flow of commercial and institutional capital into financial firms and funds, we’re ensuring that Africa’s financial sector can serve its local communities and economies in the long-term, reducing the need for development funding in the future.

 

<cite”blockquote-source”>1The Challenges and Opportunities of SME financing in Africa, London Stock Exchange Group,

Empowering women through savings groups

Posted on by Kihingu Inc

“Our economies are built on the back of women’s unpaid labour at home”

– Melinda Gates

Empowering women means, at its core, providing women with strength and confidence to control their lives, and knowledge of their own rights so that they can actively engage in their communities.

Increasing women’s access to financial services allows them to have better control over financial resources and improves independence and mobility. It also fosters greater investments in income-generating activities, and the ability to make decisions that serve the needs of women and their families. In short – financial inclusion empowers women.

But how do women, especially those living in rural areas, access financial services?

Savings groups (SGs) and access to finance

SGs are easily accessible groups of people who get together regularly to save money and borrow from the group savings, if needed, according to rules established by the group.

Programmes that promote SGs typically focus on women’s economic empowerment and measure change through quantitative indicators of economic well-being. This is mainly because SGs enable the accumulation of funds which can be used as capital for micro-enterprises and for such programmes, the quantification of results is easier. This approach, however, provides a limited understanding of the role of SGs in affecting various dimensions of women’s empowerment, such as social, political and reproductive empowerment.

The SEEP network, in partnership with FSD Africa and Nathan Associates, commissioned a savings group research across sub Saharan Africa. The aim of the research was to highlight good practices in the design and monitoring of Savings Group programmes for women’s empowerment outcomes. The research also led to the development of a monitoring tool for the measurement of the various dimensions of women’s empowerment within SGs.

Savings groups and women’s empowerment

The research built upon pre-existing frameworks and for the first time captured women’s empowerment in the specific context of SGs.

In particular, seven ‘domains’ or clusters of core areas within which empowerment can be measured have been identified. These are i) Economic independence; ii) Confidence and self-worth; iii) Decision-making; iv) Voice and leadership; v) Time use; vi) Mobility; vii) Health.

Through these domains, SGs market actors can design SGs interventions with sight of the empowerment impacts they aim to achieve. They can also observe the likelihood of empowerment outcomes and impacts across different SGs intervention types:

i) Savings Groups only interventions, for example, a development institution working on financial inclusion could adopt an SGs only approach to enable target groups to access appropriate financial services from formal financial institutions. For these kinds of interventions, empowerment impacts are strongly observed in 2 out of the 7 domains, economic independence and confidence and self-worth. Through this type of intervention, it was observed that participants gained access to appropriate financial services, enhanced financial management skills, expanded social and support networks. Fewer impacts on mobility, time-use and health were observed.

ii) Savings Groups in combination with other economic development activities, for example, a Savings Group initiative could be combined with financial education, technical or vocational training, or specific income generating activities. Strong empowerment impacts are observed for such interventions for 3 out of the 7 domains, that is, economic independence, confidence and self-worth and decision-making. Improved decision-making is observed through participants engaging in employment or self-employment and demonstrating abilities in influencing relevant decisions in their homes and communities.

iii) Savings Groups within other integrated programming i.e. programming that is aimed at weeding out harmful social norms & inequalities: for example, a Savings Group initiative could be integrated with gender programming that challenges harmful social norms such as domestic violence, female genital mutilation, negative attitudes to family planning/reproductive health, etc. The programming approach could combine SGs with education and capacity building for members accompanied by gender dialogue sessions, engaging members and their spouses, community and religious leaders.

For such interventions, impacts are strongly observed within 5 of the 7 domains: economic independence, confidence and self-worth, decision-making, voice and leadership and health. Empowerment demonstrated by leadership is observed through changes in gender norms, especially within women’s economic participation; empowerment in health through increased and improved investments in maternal, neonatal and child health or improved attitudes and norms with respect to reproductive and sexual rights. For empowerment demonstrated by time use, impacts are observed through more equitable allocation of unpaid household labour.

An example of an impactful SGs within an integrated programming intervention (i.e. intervention option iii), is the ‘Towards Economic and Sexual Reproductive Health Outcomes for Adolescent’ girls (TESFA) project under CARE International in Ethiopia. Girls within SGs provided with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) training demonstrated both economic and health related gains from programme participation. These were observed through, increased SRH knowledge, improved communication on SRH, decreased levels of gender-based violence, improved mental health, increased social support and gender attitudes.

A systematic approach to analyzing women’s empowerment

Saving Groups create economic independence for women but in order to analyze their contribution to other domains of empowerment, there is need for a systematic design of a monitoring and results measurement approach. Through this research, a toolkit that provides guidelines as to how to create an evidence-based theory of change was developed. Drawing from existing frameworks economic empowerment and existing data, the toolkit proposes a more holistic framework for SGs, based on the seven domains of empowerment discussed above. It also provides some standardized indicators to improve the comparability and aggregation of results across projects and organizations.

For more information and application of the WEE toolkit click here.