International Women’s Day: how savings groups empower rural women

This International Women’s Day, we are celebrating the determination, resilience and collective strength of rural women in eastern Africa. When women unite to save and make funds available to each other, the results can be transformational for the whole community.

In Uganda’s Karamoja sub-region, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) are helping female farmers like Betty Nakut turn small savings into lasting change.

Betty is a member of a farming and savings group in Napak district. A mother of four; with three young daughters aged eight, five and three, and a six-month-old baby boy, she has spent her life farming.

Like many women in Karamoja, she depends on the land to feed her family. Yet for years, limited funds have made it difficult to buy the high-quality seeds needed for healthy harvests or to cover her family’s essential costs.

Betty with her children and her mother.

Many of the older children in Betty’s village used to regularly miss school when their parents couldn’t afford the fees.

Across Karamoja, poverty and malnutrition remain widespread, particularly among women and children. Many families survive on a limited diet of cereal grains and wild leaves, with little opportunity to diversify what they grow or eat.

Without access to savings or affordable credit, small setbacks, such as a poor harvest or a sick child, can push households deeper into crisis. For women farmers, lack of access to finance has long been one of their biggest barriers to building resilience.

But this is changing.

A Village Savings and Loan Associations group meeting, in Napak district, Uganda.

Betty is an active member of a Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), supported by Farm Africa and CARE International’s CASCADE project. What started with 30 members in 2021 has grown to 45 – and continues to expand.

VSLAs offer women who have little or no access to formal banking a safe place to save, borrow and build the financial skills needed to diversify their incomes.

Through the VSLA, members can borrow money to invest in small businesses, pay school fees or cover urgent expenses. Last year alone, Betty’s group saved 6.7 million Ugandan Shillings (USh). In the current season, they have already saved 8 million USh in just six months.

Members of a Village Savings and Loan Associations group exchanging money.

Betty explains how it works: “When we save the money, there’s a cycle when we share it out. And by sharing it out, we see many people use it to reinvest in boosting our businesses, like we start a small business out of it, then we get a profit, which will be returned to the box.”

For Betty, this has been life-changing. As well as switching to growing more profitable and nutritious crops, such as iron-rich beans, she’s been able to invest in rearing livestock.

Diversification is key to building farmers’ resilience, especially as climate change bites. If any of Betty’s crops fail, she can still earn an income from her animals.

With her share-out, she bought a goat. That one goat multiplied – from one, to four, to seven. She later sold three goats to buy four sheep. Today, she is rearing both goats and sheep, steadily building her family’s assets.

The VSLA has also enabled her to send her children to school – something she herself never had the chance to do.

“Taking kids to school is a good thing because my kids will not be like me. I did not go to school. In the future, I know that my kids will be earning money, they’re able to write, they’re able to read. This is more beneficial to me than my kids being like me,” said Betty.

A Village Savings and Loan Associations group, in Napak district, Uganda.

Before joining the group, mothers in her village found it almost impossible to find money for school fees. But thanks to the savings group Betty can borrow quickly, send her young children back to school on time, and repay the loan after harvest.

This International Women’s Day, Betty’s story reminds us that empowering women is one of the most powerful investments we can make. With access to savings, credit and shared support, women are building assets, educating their children and strengthening their resilience.

Photo Credit: Farm Africa / Bertha Lutome