Mata Masu Dubara - Womens Savings and Credit Groups - Training Guide

This paper offers a detailed picture of the Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) project funded by CARE International in Niger.

It presents the following details about the project:

• Goal:
  • To help women cope with their responsibilities in an unfavorable socio-economic and religious environment;
  • To improve the socio-economic conditions of rural and poor urban women by offering them access to a permanent system of savings and credit.
• Method:
  • Women were trained in crafts production and other economic activities, so that they could increase their household incomes;
  • Women contributed individual savings to a savings and credit fund, which made small loans to the members;
  • They started organizing and operating their own savings and credit associations.
• Expansion and replication:
  • CARE has extended the project to three other departments in the country;
  • To meet increasing demand, CARE has also begun training village agents in the MMD methodology;
  • Women's groups in neighboring villages have replicated the methodology.
• Advantages:
  • No external funds involved;
  • Simplicity and transparency;
  • Increased savings.
• Limits:
  • Small loans;
  • Short loan period limits long term investments.
• Socio-economic impact:
  • Increase in participants' livelihood security;
  • Maintenance of existing levels of economic investment;
  • Increase in the feeling of economic and social independence;
  • Increase in the ability to maintain social support networks.

The paper concludes by describing the three phases in which the project is implemented.