Spending, saving and borrowing: Perceptions and experiences of girls in Gujarat

Recognizing that a better understanding of the savings patterns and potential of adolescent girls and young women is an essential prerequisite for shaping the design of appropriate savings options and services for this group, SEWA, a leading micro-credit nongovernmental organization in India, in partnership with the Population Council, conducted research among adolescent girls and young women who held accounts in one or more of SEWA’s savings schemes. The study aimed to assess their access to money, their savings and spending behaviors, their experiences as holders of savings accounts, and their preferences with regard to savings products for the young. Findings suggest that young females are interested in savings and have access to money but remain uninformed about available savings options, and exercise limited decisionmaking authority or control over economic resources, including their own accounts. The study notes that there is considerable potential and an unmet need for providing meaningful savings options for adolescent girls and young women. Financial literacy programs are needed that apprise young females about savings options available to them, the processes and mechanisms implied in opening and operating savings accounts, and the facilities associated with the ownership of a savings account in terms of credit options

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) Program: Providing social support, savings, and microcredit opportunities to adolescent girls at risk for HIV/AIDS in Kenya

This brief was commissioned by the Population Council to complement its two previous publications on the TRY project. The two previous publications contain data and information essential for understanding the project and its results, although they do not analyze the microfinance component in depth. In contrast, this brief was written by microfinance practitioners for a microfinance audience. In 1998, the Population Council and K-Rep (a Kenyan microfinance institution) developed a microfinance approach to address livelihood-strategy constraints for adolescent girls at risk for HIV/AIDS in an urban slum in Kenya. The initiative was named the Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) program, and its objective was to reduce adolescent girls’ vulnerabilities to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes by improving their livelihoods options. The adolescents in this project were out-of-school girls and young women aged 16–22 residing in low-income and slum areas of Nairobi. TRY used a group-based microfinance model to provide credit, savings, business support, and mentoring to program participants. This brief is a focused analysis of the microfinance components of the project

Programme Impact Assessment in Micro?Finance: The Need for Analysis of Real Markets

summary Impact assessment in micro?finance has focused on the impact of services on users and the ability of the organisation delivering those services to sustain its operations into the future. However, a focus on building organisations capable of long?term provision assumes that they will have a positive impact on the efficiency of the financial market. This is an assumption which impact assessment should also test but which has so far been neglected. Moreover, the search for a framework within which to undertake such an assessment must incorporate the complex array of social and political, as well as economic, relationships which financial markets embody. A fourfold analytical approach is proposed which can incorporate gender relations and which focuses on state involvement, market organisation, market structure and social embeddedness

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY): Providing social support, savings, and microcredit opportunities for young women in areas with high HIV prevalence

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) was a multiphase initiative undertaken by the Population Council and K-Rep Development Agency (KDA), the oldest and largest microfinance institution in Kenya. The overall aim of the project was to reduce adolescents’ vulnerabilities to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes, including HIV infection, by improving their livelihoods options. The project was launched in low-income and slum areas of Nairobi, Kenya, where rates of HIV infection are alarming and where young women are disproportionately affected

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY): Providing social support, savings, and microcredit opportunities for young women in areas with high HIV prevalence

Nairobi, Kenya is home to one of the largest slum populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Adolescents living in these slums, especially girls, are cut off from the potentially protective environments of school and family and lack safe economic opportunities. Unemployment is a major concern for adolescent girls, and desperate circumstances force them to survive however they can: 21 percent of sexually active girls aged 15–19 report exchanging sex for money or gifts. This heightened vulnerability is reflected in rates of HIV infection. In response to these circumstances, the Population Council and microfinance institution K-Rep Development Agency collaborated on the implementation of the Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) program. The goal was to reduce adolescents’ vulnerability to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes by improving their livelihoods options. As noted in Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood Brief No. 15, the TRY model evolved from a minimalist savings and credit model to one that also provided social support and a savings option. The TRY experience underscored girls’ differing capabilities during their transition to adulthood

Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY): prestar apoio social e oportunidades de microcrédito e de poupanças a mulheres jovens em áreas com uma prevalência de VIH elevada

Nairobi, no Quénia, acolhe uma dos maiores populações de bairros pobres na África subsariana. Os adolescentes que vivem nesses bairros, especialmente as jovens, stão privadas dos ambientes potencialmente seguros das suas escolas e famílias e não têm oportunidades económicas seguras. O desemprego é uma enorme preocupação para as jovens adolescentes e as circunstâncias desesperantes obriga-as a sobreviver conforme podem: 21% das jovens sexualmente activas entre os 15–19 anos de idade admitiram que têm relações sexuais em troca de dinheiro ou ofertas. Essa vulnerabilidade acrescida reflecte-se nas taxas da infecção pelo VIH. Em resposta a essas circunstâncias, o Population Council e a K-Rep Development Agency (a mais antiga e a maior instituição micro-financeira no Quénia) colaboraram no projecto e implementação de um programa chamado “Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY).” O objectivo era reduzir a vulnerabilidade dos adolescentes face a resultados adversos sociais e de saúde reprodutiva, melhorando as alternativas aos seus meios de vida. Conforme observado no Promover Transições para a Idade Adulta: Saudáveis, Seguras e Produtivas Nº 15, o modelo TRY foi evoluindo ao longo da duração do programa, passando de um modelo minimalista de poupanças e crédito para um que também oferecia aos seus clientes apoio social e um aopção de poupança voluntária individual. --- Nairobi, Kenya is home to one of the largest slum populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Adolescents living in these slums, especially girls, are cut off from the potentially protective environments of school and family and lack safe economic opportunities. Unemployment is a major concern for adolescent girls, and desperate circumstances force them to survive however they can: 21 percent of sexually active girls aged 15–19 report exchanging sex for money or gifts. This heightened vulnerability is reflected in rates of HIV infection. In response to these circumstances, the Population Council and microfinance institution K-Rep Development Agency collaborated on the implementation of the Tap and Reposition Youth (TRY) program. The goal was to reduce adolescents’ vulnerability to adverse social and reproductive health outcomes by improving their livelihoods options. As noted in Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood Brief No. 15, the TRY model evolved from a minimalist savings and credit model to one that also provided social support and a savings option. The TRY experience underscored girls’ differing capabilities during their transition to adulthood