Digitizing Rural Women's Savings Groups in Tanzania

Key activities

• A total of six existing savings groups were selected (“paper-to-digital”) and seven new groups were created (“born digital”) to test the DreamSave App. During the program’s timeline, groups used DreamSave to conduct group savings activities.
• Each group was provided with a “smartphone to mitigate any bias from only working with groups that had access to a group smartphone.” (Arnold, 2020). 
• Savings groups were provided with training on the use of the DreamSave app from PCI staff.
• Baseline and endline data collection via surveys with savings group members and review of DreamSave app data.
• DreamSave uses savings goals and SMS reminders to encourage savings contributions and loan repayments. 

Outcomes/results

• The introduction of a group smartphone increased members’ curiosity about using this technology for other purposes. Members from both existing and new groups reported spending time outside of their savings groups learning how to navigate both the phone and the app, thus increasing digital literacy and capability. 
• “By automating calculations for loan repayments, fines, and savings balances, DreamSave reduced time spent on financial transactions from 2.5-3 hours to 30-60 minutes. Members from both paper-to-digital and born digital groups reported positive feedback on the time savings.” (Arnold, 2020). 
• DreamSave app data revealed that 25% of “paper-to-digital” groups and 50% of “born digital” groups’ loans were repaid before the due date. 
• “DreamSave [in-app goals] and SMS reminders resulted in a significant increase in group discipline and members’ ability to know how much they need to save to reach their goal.” (Arnold, 2020). 

Key enabling environment factors for the intervention 

• Offline functionality of the DreamSave app made it possible for savings groups to enter data without seeking an area with connectivity.
• Willingness of savings groups to participate in testing/use of a digital savings ledger.

Key design elements and principles that led to successful outcomes

• “Purposely selected a population that would be difficult to reach and less familiar with smartphone technology to test what needs to ultimately be considered when digitizing rural savings groups.” (Arnold, 2020).  
• DreamSave’s “goal setting” feature significantly improved members’ ability to know how much they need to save to reach their goal. “Women in new groups and existing groups reported a 50% and 70% increase, respectively, in knowing how much they needed to save for a specific goal.” (Arnold, 2020). 
• The use of SMS reminders played an important role in increasing loan repayment discipline. GIFs, videos and stars to reward groups when reaching savings goals was popular among members as well. 
• The introduction of group smartphones to all groups sampled was important in sparking interest in use and discovery of new technology. 

Potential for scale/replicability

Organizations and providers can develop similar apps with notification and SMS capabilities – though, consideration should be made for women using shared household phone numbers by providing information on the implications of SMS reminders and how that information might be shared with other household members who use the same phone.

Organizations that conduct training of trainers and digitize women’s savings groups can ensure that women have more access and exposure to smartphones by introducing group smartphones. This can contribute to growing their trust in digital tools and technology.

Providing more smartphones per group so as to make learning smartphone use faster for group savings members beyond the group bookkeeper. 

Creating more adaptable apps that take into consideration the periodic or sudden changing group bylaws.

Challenges encountered during the program

Cited from Arnold, 2020:

“Recruitment for the digital savings groups was challenging. One community facilitator (CF) for born digital groups reported that finding individuals to form a digital savings group took nearly twice as long as usual because when community members discovered they would be using a smartphone-based ledger some opted not to sign up.”

“A key—and popular—feature of DreamSave was the SMS reminders sent to individual members’ phones. Members have the option to— include a mobile phone number if they want to receive SMS messages with personalized meeting summaries, transaction receipts, and loan reminders. While these SMS messages are optional and the app explains that personal financial information will be sent to these numbers if they activate that feature, these implications were not well communicated and explained during training. For women whose primary phone was a shared household phone, the risk of entering this number was not well understood. These women did not anticipate their husbands’ receiving the savings information, and when it came time for share-out this posed a problem. When one woman asked the bookkeeper to stop sending the messages to her husband, the husband received an SMS telling him that the notifications had been turned off and he became angry. It is common for women to save privately, away from their husbands and other household members. Further training is needed to prevent such unintended consequences in the future.”

Communication challenges with groups in remote areas delayed necessary updates/adaptations to the DreamSave app.

The unique practices and cultures of the savings groups were not—reflected in the DreamSave app. Though DreamSave deliberately decided not to pre-adapt the app, members mentioned some challenges in the use of the app given their particular practices.

Recommendations from the research

“One of the key takeaways for savings group practitioners is that trainers need to be careful to educate members during setup of a new digital app so all members are aware of the settings and can make their own choices.” (Arnold, 2020). 

As implementers “expand digitization of savings groups, adequate investment in digital literacy training—including identifying individuals with smartphone experience as community ‘champions’—will be essential to successful expansion.” (Arnold, 2020). 

“Future expansion of DreamSave [or other digital savings ledgers] in rural areas with limited technology exposure will require more robust community engagement prior to the pilot to address the larger questions of trust and level of experience with digital technology…” (Arnold, 2020).