This document presents recent savings work and includes a three-year project with four of our network members. At the outset of the project titled Safe Places to Save, Women's World Banking conducted targeted research and diagnostics in four markets (Colombia, Pakistan, Kenya, and the Dominican Republic) but our analysis of the impact of savings on women's lives dates back to 1999 when Women's World Banking began building a significant body of market research on savings. Four of our early studies focused explicitly on the demand and feasibility for savings services. Data were also drawn from research into the drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty carried out in multiple markets. In addition, Women's World Banking has conducted in-depth research studies to better understand the ways in which women's roles within poor households affect the allocation of time and money and financial behaviors. Unique in the field of microfinance, these five studies yielded striking insights into the ways men and women see themselves, and each other, as economic actors, and what those perceptions mean for financial institutions seeking to provide savings
