Comparing “Born Digital” and “Paper-to-Digital” Groups

This research brief highlights key insights from a study of digital savings groups (DSGs) conducted in rural Tanzania from August 2019 through February 2020. The research was led by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) working with savings groups supported by Project Concern International (PCI), a Global Communities Partner, and their Women Empowered (WE) program. The study followed two sets of WE savings groups which piloted the DreamSave app from DreamStart Labs. The first set of groups were mature savings groups that had been recording transactions on paper for multiple years and then switched to DreamSave (“Paper-to-Digital”). The second set of groups learned the savings group model using the app from the beginning (“Born Digital”). The pilot was conducted in the Mara region, which has high poverty, low literacy, and limited experience with mobile technology.