Photo: Women walking in Tamale, Ghana. © IPA
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New Evidence Synthesis: How Savings Groups Impact Women's Economic Lives
Authors: Daniela Graney and Lauren Perlik
Our new evidence synthesis reveals how, with 500 million members globally, savings groups offer a way for women—especially in rural areas—to access financial services and credit, and are transforming financial inclusion in developing economies. Drawing from rigorous studies across multiple countries, we found that well-designed savings groups help women save more efficiently, access lower-interest credit, boost business activities (especially in agriculture), strengthen household decision-making power, and build resilience against financial shocks. While results on food security and health outcomes are mixed, our synthesis identifies promising innovations, like digital integration and formal banking linkages, that could amplify these groups' impact as powerful tools for women's economic empowerment.
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Research Highlight
Increasing Mobile Money Competition Improves Services: Evidence from Rural Ghana
Photo: A mobile money outlet (right) that vends digital financial services (retail mobile money, airtime, SIM cards, etc.) and a nearby, traditional corner store (left) that retails other goods and services in Akim Anamase in Ghana's Eastern Region. © 2023 Bismark Adobaw
Researcher: Francis Annan
Digital financial services, like mobile money, expand financial inclusion, but they also expose consumers to risks like vendor overcharging. In rural Ghana, researchers found that “upgrading” non-financial stores to operate as new mobile money vendors increased competition in both mobile money and non-financial outlets. Vendor misconduct from overcharging fell by 50 percent, while service quality and customer satisfaction improved. This sparked community economic growth through lower sales prices for customers, increased local shopping, and 20 percent higher revenues on non-financial goods. Increasing competition among mobile money vendors offers a promising approach with global implications, as enlisting non-financial businesses for financial services is both widespread and scalable.
Read the academic paper here.
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Policy Insight
The Vital Role of Data and Evidence in Shaping the Education Policy Landscape in Uganda
Photo: The Uganda Edlab secretariat team at an Edlab retreat in May 2025. © IPA
IPA Staff: Vianney Mbonigaba, Gloria Mbera, Alon Muhame, and Joseph Kurama
Since 2023, Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), through the Education Policy and Research (EPAR) Division and in partnership with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), has been implementing an Embedded Evidence Lab to strengthen the use of data and evidence in policymaking. The Lab’s first project, a study on science subjects, enabled valuable skills transfer from IPA to MoES research staff in areas like data collection and analysis. Insights from this study are now informing discussions on the draft National Science Education Policy. Encouraged by the study’s success, MoES has requested further support from the Lab on key priorities,
including Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) policy and the School Feeding Policy. The Lab Secretariat, led by EPAR, plays a central role in identifying and prioritizing policy challenges and ensuring that relevant evidence is generated, applied, and scaled into policy and programming. To further support evidence use, the Lab has also launched a cross-departmental learning forum, the Evidence Brown Bag Series, to promote data sharing and co-creation with partners.
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Links of Interest
The Hidden Costs of Digital Finance: What Mobile Money Providers Aren't Telling You
Mobile money and other digital financial services (DFS) have significantly expanded financial access for millions of underserved people around the world. However, despite being marketed as more affordable and accessible than traditional banking, DFS often come with fees that are unclear, inconsistent, and sometimes too high for lower-income users. In this blog post, authors Ria Zapanta, Julia Chen Heigel, and Victoria Yan share key insights from price tracking research conducted across 16 countries through IPA’s Transaction Cost Index (TCI) initiative.
Peace & Recovery Initiative | Call for Proposals
IPA’s Peace & Recovery Initiative (PRI), funded by UK International Development, supports rigorous impact evaluations, pilots, exploratory studies, evidence use and policy outreach support, and infrastructure and public goods projects to inform policies and programs related to the prevention of, responses to, and recovery from most forms of social and political violence as well as humanitarian emergencies. PRI’s ninth call for proposals is now open. Proposals are due on June 13, 2025. Learn more here.
What Brazil’s Micro and Small Businesses Reveal About the Future of Digital Finance
Over the last five years, digital transactions have reshaped the way people and businesses in Brazil send and receive money and pay for goods and services. This transition has been facilitated by the introduction of the country’s instant payment system, Pix. In this blog post, researchers Lucas Argentieri Mariani (Bocconi University), Giorgia Barboni (Warwick Business School), José Renato Haas Ornelas (Central Bank of Brazil), Bernardo Ricca (Insper), Natalie Theys (New Equilibrium Labs), and Hussam Razi (IPA) share what they have learned about Pix use and digital financial inclusion from their research conducted in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo.
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Manager, Right-Fit Evidence | Kenya or Uganda
Support the strategic delivery of an exciting multi-country project focused on education, health, and Mental Health And Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) interventions in refugee and humanitarian settings.
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Associate Policy and Program Development Manager | Philippines
Support the development of new projects across priority sectors under the Philippines Socioeconomic Panel Survey (PSPS), including identifying high-impact policy-relevant RCTs that leverage data from the Panel Survey and fostering engagement with both government and non-government partners to support project implementation.
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Research Manager | Philippines
Oversee a portfolio of research studies, manage partner relationships, and lead project development in select sectors. As a key member of the IPA Philippines management team, the person in this role will promote best practices across projects in the country office and contribute to policy dialogue.
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Senior Research Associate | Rwanda
Support a research project evaluating a loan product for exporters and potential exporters, working closely with the IPA research team, principal investigators (PIs), and implementing partners. This role will require robust experience and knowledge of the financial sector and products.
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