WomenSave

Nearly one billion women worldwide do not have bank accounts. This means they do not have access to funds for predictable life events, much less emergencies. WomenSave is on a mission to connect underserved women in developing economies to the digital economy with mobile money and commitment savings plans, a financial product through which clients regularly set aside small amounts of money until the target amount/date is met. These plans afford women a real voice and risk-free tool to make their financial goals a reality. Each client receives financial literacy training, one-on-one financial advisory services, commitment savings plans, reminders to make contributions to them and access to mobile money. With their mobile money accounts they also can access credit, receive remittances and accept cash transfers if available. WomenSave can empower women everywhere with the tools, skills and confidence to shape their own financial futures.

Nearly one billion women worldwide do not have bank accounts. Although financial inclusion is on the rise, men are 9% more likely to be financially included across developing economies. The formal financial system has not met the needs of women living in poverty for both demand- and supply-side reasons. Potential clients often are too scared to take on debt and fail to meet the minimum requirements to open accounts. Formal Financial Service Providers view women living on less than $2 per day as an expensive and risky client segment. Efforts to reach women living in poverty with financial services exist but fall short. Most Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) focus on loans and do not leverage digital technology. Research, however, shows that women living in poverty want to save, are able to save and do save. But the informal mechanisms they use are risky, expensive, illiquid and/or inflexible. In fact, a study in Uganda, where nearly 5 million women lack access to bank accounts, found that poor households lost, on average, about 20% of their money when saving informally. Fortunately, mobile money is on the rise. But women remain disproportionately unconnected and thus, cannot take advantage of digital economy opportunities.

WomenSave targets women living in poverty (< $2/day) in developing economies, underserved by the formal financial system. Why? Because on average women have lower income, generally spend a greater percentage of it on their children and households and are disproportionately excluded from the formal financial sector. Women of any age are welcome to join the program, but clients typically are over 18 years old. Given that many female economic empowerment interventions find that household decision-making continues to be dominated by men and inadvertently reinforces norms that women are caregivers invested in their families while men are not, WomenSave engages men as allies. For example, our first financial literacy training session is designed for men and women, and husbands and wives participate together. Geographically, WomenSave focuses on Sub Saharan Africa and more specifically, East Africa. As demonstrated by the launch of our pilot project in Uganda, WomenSave starts with rigorous market research. And throughout our work we collect quantitative and qualitative data to inform and improve our client experience to best meet their needs, and provide accessible, affordable and personalized financial products and services.

WomenSave connects vulnerable populations to the digital economy. Specifically, through our pilot project in rural western Uganda, we have worked with over 500 women to set up mobile money accounts and structure commitment savings plans and emergency funds. This all is done remotely and safely thanks to existing technology. We partner with MoKash, a service of MTN Mobile Money that is simple to set up from any mobile phone. WomenSave is the critical missing link between women and mobile money, which allows them access to basic financial services and and positions them to receive remittances and/or cash transfers if available.

WomenSave focuses on goal-based savings critical to improving female financial inclusion, agency and resilience. We place a premium on treating women living in poverty as individuals and brining them into the formal financial system in a high-impact and low-risk way. We distinguish ourselves from other Financial Service Providers who target a similar demographic, like Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and Savings Groups (SGs), in a number of important ways. First, unlike MFIs, WomenSave incentivizes savings over loans. This empowers women to truthfully define their financial priorities rather than just apply for a micro business loan. Second, our clients are not left with debt they may not be able to repay, especially if funds are for unprofitable purposes. Third, rather than offer standard financial products, WomenSave tailors ours to individuals.  All clients have personalized commitment savings plans and emergency funds to which they make contributions. This also differentiates us from SGs, which offer members a one-size loan at an assigned time that does not necessarily correspond to their needs. Fourth, WomenSave relies on behavioral economic research that shows goal-based saving is more effective that regular saving. By setting targets and timetables and sending regular reminders, WomenSave helps our clients meet their financial goals and increase their savings. Finally, as compared to both MFIs and SGs, WomenSave links clients with mobile money giving them sustainable access to financial services, including a permanent, safe place to save. Clients connected to the digital economy also can access credit, receive remittances and accept cash transfers.

Commitment savings work. Rigorous research conducted by Innovations for Poverty Action shows positive results in numerous countries, including the Philippines, where people randomly offered goal-based commitment savings accounts increased their balances by 82%. The experience of WomenSave to date also speaks to the power of commitment savings. We launched our pilot project in March 2020 in two western districts of Uganda with 507 clients. Despite the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and clients’ immediate loss of income, WomenSave has had some impressive results. All clients have active MoKash (a service of MTN Mobile Money) accounts and commitment savings plans. This demonstrates that even women living in remote rural areas can be connected to the digital economy safely and remotely and use the technology to their advantage. As of the end of June 2020, 99% of clients had deposited savings valued at approximately $5,550 or $11 per person, on average. This represents 29% of the total goal, although percentages obviously vary by client. With this in mind, we are hopeful that by the end of the pilot project in December, 60% of WomenSave clients will meet their financial goals. The three most popular goals are livestock (48%), education (26%) and housing (7%). In terms of social outcomes, we expect to see an increase in animal husbandry and school attendance, as well as improved dwellings. Additionally, we hope to see emergency funds financed at 5%, an important step toward financial resilience.

WomenSave aims to positively impact female financial inclusion, agency and resilience. We intend to do so by training women in financial literacy, offering them individual financial advisory services, designing commitment savings plans and emergency funds for them and sending regular reminders to make contributions to both as well as congratulatory messages at major milestones. Perhaps most importantly, we help clients set up mobile money accounts to manage independently, remotely and safely. Other outcomes we track include the amount of money clients have saved, both toward their commitment savings goals and their emergency funds. Additionally, we track the type of financial goal they achieve (e.g., education, livestock, housing). We plan to demonstrate increased female financial inclusion with the number of active mobile money accounts, increased female financial agency with the number of commitment savings goals achieved and increased female financial resilience with the number of personal emergency funds fully financed. Finally, we plan to track our clients’ access to loans, remittances and cash transfers as a result of their linkage to the digital economy.

WomenSave relies on MoKash, a service of MTN Mobile Money in Uganda, which allows clients to set up an account account from the safety of their home with a simple mobile phone and/or SIM card. Each client has an individual pin that she does not share. While WomenSave coaches her through how to set up an account and actively use it, she manages it independently. Given the low level of education and technology required to set up the account, WomenSave feels like MoKash is an ideal mechanism to bring women living in poor, remote and rural areas into the formal financial system. And there are systems like it in other countries. For example, M-PESA (Kenya) and MOMO (Ghana). The technology is there but often out of reach from vulnerable populations like women simply because they do not know it exists and/or how to use it. At WomenSave, we see our role as bridging that gap between existing technology and vulnerable people.

WomenSave partners with MoKash, a service of MTN Mobile Money in Uganda, which is extremely user friendly. The client uses a mobile money agent or shop in her village to initially set up the MTN Mobile Money account with the following basic requirement: National ID, Refugee Card or Passport. Next, she can set up the MoKash account from the comfort of her home with a simple mobile phone. Our WomenSave Savings Officers coach clients through this process. And she can begin using it immediately to make deposits and withdrawals, apply for loans and accept remittances and cash transfers.

Once WomenSave clients have their mobile money accounts, they can access savings, lending and money transfer services. Our goal is to teach them how to use their accounts in a way that helps them reach their financial goals on their own terms and conditions. That is why WomenSave focuses on setting up individual goal-based savings plans in the form of soft commitment savings plans and emergency funds. These solutions can be implemented with the use of any mobile money banking platform, anywhere. And as a result of our clients’ usage of mobile money, they will be sustainably connected to the formal financial system in a low-risk and high-impact way.

Low connectivity can be a challenge, especially in remote rural areas of Sub Saharan Africa. However, MTN Mobile is constantly improving coverage, as are other companies, like Google, which recently launched a test of high-speed Internet balloons in Kenya. This gives WomenSave hope that connectivity will only improve over time. In terms of low literacy and numeracy, WomenSave specifically designed its financial literacy training curriculum for all levels (including illiterate/innumerate). We also selected MoKash as our partner thanks to its very straightforward and user-friendly interface that only requires a simple mobile phone. In the event that a client really cannot even enter or read numbers, we pair her with a “buddy” (another client who has at least a basic skill set and can assist her with basic account management). Although she is instructed never to share her PIN. This information is communicated during training. Overall we feel that the WomenSave solution effectively brings women living in poverty, regardless of their education level and location, into the formal financial system.

Currently WomenSave has 507 clients in its pilot project in two western districts of Uganda. Next year we hope to reach 2,000 clients in the same districts. Following that, we would like to expand to other areas of Uganda with the goal of reaching 100,000 clients in five years. Ultimately, WomenSave envisions expanding to other countries too.

WomenSave envisions a world where every woman has the tools, skills and confidence to shape her own financial future. By the end of this year we plan to complete our pilot project and conduct endline data analysis to understand our results and lessons learned. With that information in hand, WomenSave will make any necessary changes to our model before expanding our products and services to the next group of 2,000 clients. Specifically, we hope to gain a better understanding of optimal operational structure (e.g., number of clients per staff) and willingness to pay for our products and services. Once we have the appropriate systems in place, we want to scale. First within Uganda, ideally reaching 100,000 clients in five years. Beyond that, we would like to expand to other countries first in East Africa and then elsewhere if the appropriate conditions (e.g., mobile money) are in place.

Operationally, WomenSave may not be able to meet in person with client groups for the foreseeable future. While our staff still can provide the majority of our products and services individually and/or over the phone, if the current limitations on large group gatherings continue WomenSave will need to develop alternate methods to deliver financial literacy training. In addition, as we scale up, we will need to consider mobile network coverage. Clients will need reliable access both to communicate with their Savings Officers and to make mobile money deposits and withdrawals. Next, sustainable revenue is critical to the ability of WomenSave to scale successfully. If we are not able to develop formal partnerships with banks and/or clients are unwilling to pay for our services after the initial free trial period, WomenSave will have trouble funding its work. Programmatically WomenSave anticipates two main risks. First aggravating gender dynamics concerning money. Specifically, husbands may disapprove of their wives saving and women may disproportionately shoulder household expenses. Also, our model risks uprooting the social fabric of supporting one another. That is to say women will not have disposable cash to help neighbors, for example. All of these could present barriers to WomenSave accomplishing its goals.

WomenSave plans to alter its existing financial literacy curriculum to be offered in smaller groups over the phone with exercises designed to reinforce learning. This will be more time intensive and could affect the number of clients each Savings Officer can work with directly, so we will need to monitor the situation. Unfortunately, we may need to prioritize areas with good network coverage, even if this excludes potential clients with greater needs. In terms of long term revenue prospects, WomenSave plans to spend time relationship building with banks early on (now). And we will collect data on willingness to pay through the pilot project to gauge realistic predictions of what proportion of our revenue we can expect from clients themselves. Programmatically, WomenSave plans to address gender dynamics through financial literacy training, in which we will include men in the first session to discuss setting financial goals, including household and personal ones. Also, WomenSave hopes that over time as more people become clients, fewer community members will need to ask family and friends for cash in times of need because they will have their own savings and emergency funds.

Currently WomenSave operates as a program of Global Partners for Development, a registered 501(c)3 dedicated to community-led development in East Africa. However, WomenSave plans to register for its own 501(c)3 status in the coming year.

WomenSave has seven staff: one Director (full time), one Country Coordinator (part time) and five Savings Officers (full time), who work directly with our clients.

The Director of WomenSave, Marie Mintalucci, has nearly 15 years of experience in international development with a focus on financial inclusion in Sub Saharan Africa. Her degrees in international affairs and economic and political development from Georgetown University and Columbia University, respectively, drove her to work in a sector that makes the world more equitable. Her professional experiences at USAID, Trickle Up, Women's World Banking and The Hunger Project informed the design of the WomenSave solution, which focuses on savings as a low-risk and high-impact way to sustainably bring women living in poverty into the formal financial system.

Amon Ariyo, the WomenSave Country Director, brings understanding of the local context in the two western districts in Uganda where WomenSave currently operates. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is responsible for oversight of Saving Officers and client experience quality control.

Most importantly, the five WomenSave Savings Officers are local women from the districts in Uganda where they work who have relevant business admin degrees. They work directly with clients, in their language, on their level, building trust and access to financial products and services that they need.

Global Partners for Development is currently the fiscal sponsor for WomenSave, although as mentioned above WomenSave has plans to register as its own non profit in the near future. In addition, WomenSave relies heavily on MoKash, a service of MTN Mobile Money, to connect our clients to the formal financial system and meet their financial goals. Finally, WomenSave has had preliminary talks with the Central Bank of Africa (CBA), which backs MTN Mobile Money, about a possible partnership moving forward. Given that WomenSave is providing trained clients, with savings in the bank and a history of making regular deposits toward something, we feel this could be a mutually-beneficial relationship.

WomenSave offers clients financial literacy training, one-on-one financial advisory services, commitment savings plans and emergency funds, reminders to make contributions to both as well as congratulatory messages at major milestones and perhaps most importantly, access to mobile money. Our clients are women who live in poor, remote and rural areas of Sub Saharan Africa, a demographic typically not served by the formal financial system with which we connect them. While we plan to offer these services free of charge for an initial trial period (approximately two years), following this clients will decide if they want to graduate and continue accessing mobile money products and services on their own or continue as a WomenSave client for a small monthly fee of approximately US$1. These fees will directly fund local overhead, the large majority of which is salaries for Savings Officers. They are the educated, local and trustworthy women who work directly with clients to train, advise and encourage them to meet their financial goals. WomenSave knows from our market research that there is a demand for our products and services and the early results from our pilot project corroborate that finding. We also feel that we are providing value to banks, many of which need to meet financial inclusion mandates, by brining them otherwise excluded women who have been trained, saved money and established a history of making regular contributions toward a financial goal. Consequently, we think there is an argument for a more formal partnership.

For the pilot project, WomenSave relied on individual donations. Currently, we are seeking grants from foundations, governments and multilateral organizations to fund our next phase of scale up. We have had promising talks with FSD-Uganda, a national nonprofit dedicated to expanding financial access, regarding this phase. In the long term, we hope to form partnerships with mobile money operators and the banks that back them. In the case of Uganda, this concerns MTN Mobile Money and the Central Bank of Africa (CBA), with whom we already have started discussions. Finally, we expect to pass along some local costs to clients. While we still are testing willingness to pay in the pilot project, we think it is reasonable to expect that after two to three rounds of commitment savings plans with WomenSave, we can offer clients the option to graduate and continue to access mobile money savings and other financial services on their own or continue as WomenSave clients for a small monthly fee.

WomenSave raised approximately US$21,000 from individual donors to fund its pilot project this year (2020).

WomenSave hopes to raise approximately US$130,000 in grants for the next phase/year of operations. This will enable us to reach 2,000 clients with our products and services. The largest budget line item is salaries and wages for Savings Officers, which represents approximately US$43,000 or 1/3 of the proposed budget. Other expenses, in order of magnitude, include transportation, training, client toolkits and Monitoring Evaluation & Learning (devices and software).

WomenSave estimated expenses for 2020 are US$21,000. Again, the large majority of this (US$10,000 or 46%) is for Savings Officers' salaries.

WomenSave is applying to the Mission Billion Challenge to secure funding for its next phase of operations. We feel that if we are able to demonstrate to banks that we can move beyond the pilot phase and position ourselves to scale effectively to more clients (who we will bring directly to them) they will be even more interested in working with us in a formal partnership that will provide sustainable revenue for our model. Also, the visibility that comes with winning the Mission Billion Challenge would help WomenSave earn the attention of other possible funders.

As a young organization, WomenSave currently has two advisory board members. As we gain our own 501(c)3 status we will need a full board of directors in place. Ware looking for individuals who have expertise in financial inclusion and fundraising in particular. Additionally, WomenSave needs support to improve communications/marketing and Monitoring Evaluation & Learning as we start to scale.

WomenSave would like to partner with the Central Bank of Africa (CBA) to sustainably bring excluded, vulnerable populations like rural women into the formal financial system with their mobile money platforms. With their expertise, guidance and funds WomenSave can scale our solution to hundreds of thousands if not millions of women living in poverty in East Africa.