WUNRN
Kenya & Uganda - Safe & Smart Savings Project for Vulnerable Adolescent Girls Empowerment
Working with financial institutions and girls’ programs in
Go Girl account holders march
through Kibera to raise awareness about the new girls' savings program. An adolescent girl in Increasing
attention is being given to adolescent girls’ economic empowerment. We have seen—and
expect to see on a larger scale—adolescent girls saving small amounts of money,
planning for future financial goals, and preparing for unexpected emergencies. In June 2008, at the start of
this project, there were no formal, accessible ways for girls in East Africa to
save their money, which increased their risk and vulnerability. Girls without
safe, planned places to store their savings have been robbed; suffered
harassment by family members, boyfriends, husbands, and others in their
communities; and become targets of sexual violence. Having access to savings
accounts can help alleviate some of these consequences as well as facilitate
the savings process. This in turn can increase adolescent girls’ economic
stability as they move toward adulthood. Girls also are not routinely
taught basic savings and budgeting skills, without which their ability to save
successfully and wisely manage their money is diminished. With the growing
trend toward encouraging girls to take charge of their own finances, they need
these skills to adequately prepare them to do so. Council researchers are
working with two financial institutions in Kenya and two in Uganda that have
already begun to develop ways for low-income clients to save money. We are
working closely with them to develop appropriate products and services for
adolescent girls that are delivered in the context of a program that encourages
girls' engagement and empowerment. With this project, the
Population Council is partnering with MicroSave, a consulting company with
expertise in market-driven financial product development, in addition to
financial institutions from Kenya (K-Rep Bank and Faulu Kenya Limited) and
Uganda (FINCA-Uganda and Finance Trust). The proposed activities build on prior
work, including the development of a financial literacy curriculum for
adolescent girls in Kibera, Kenya, and a market research study on savings
products for adolescent girls in Kibera. Savings products are also designed to
build on what the Council has learned in regard to high-quality programming for
girls—including providing safe spaces and building social networks through
friends and mentors. As of the end of 2009, the
pilot project in Kenya has been completed (along with baseline and endline
surveys) and plans for countrywide roll-out are under way. The pilot project in
Uganda, with accompanying baseline survey, was recently launched.
