In Their Own Hands: Empowerment as Development

In Their Own Hands is the story of how I came to see the impact of savings groups—once I learned how they worked, I never turned back. This book is about how we can learn from the power of savings groups and apply the principles I learned over years of working in this field to move development forward.

Before I learned about savings groups, I had designed, managed, and evaluated microfinance institutions for twenty years. While microfinance was working well in urban areas, I concluded that it was not serving the rural poor. I built from what I learned in Nepal, and later in India and Zimbabwe, to launch and lead the Oxfam America/Freedom from Hunger Saving for Change initiative that has, since 2005, trained and supported savings groups with 650,000 women members in thousands of villages across Mali, Senegal, Cambodia, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

Through this experience, I have learned that the poor are not too poor to save, that there is enough savings potential within a group of twenty people to meet most needs within a small community, and that small sums can make a big difference. Once groups have mastered the mechanics of savings and lending, they begin to ask, “What’s next?” With a reserve of savings and the knowledge that they can easily access small loans to meet an immediate need, they gradually come to believe tomorrow can be different from today. The disciplined hard work of saving every week and running a group has made a difference.