How Oral Information Management Tools Boost Women’s Financial Literacy and Savings in Ethiopia [Video]

Savings groups—often referred to as informal community banks—are small groups of people who save together and lend to each other from their pooled funds. Globally, as many as 500 million people belong to savings groups. Approximately 80% of members are women, and many savings groups programs are designed to advance gender equality.  

This is the quintessential principle of Global Communities’ Women Empowered (WE) initiative. While helping women access financial resources and build sustainable livelihoods, WE employs innovative solutions to promote women’s participation, leadership and collective action, enabling them to become confident leaders in their homes and communities. 

But how can groups achieve the same level of agency and participation for women in communities with low literacy and financial numeracy levels? Nearly 800 million people globally are non-literate and close to one billion are unable to read and write multi-digit numbers. Two-thirds of them are women. 

In the South Omo region of Ethiopia, many communities share an unwritten mother tongue and rely on oral or visual communication, …