Research
Digital Sub-Wallets for Increased Financial Empowerment of Women
This resource contains information and research about the Digital Sub-Wallets project implemented by CARE in Uganda. Digital Sub-Wallets was a savings group approach to address the unique needs of women in terms of formal financial services, individual agency, relations, and informal structures such as gender norms.
The intervention was twofold. First, participating Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) opened a group bank account; individuals could then open their own accounts linked to the group account and use mobile technology to access their banking information. Second, the project offered a series of gender and financial counseling sessions to households. During the project pilot, phone ownership and bank account ownership both showed statistically significant increases among women, and 99.6% of participants offered household counseling chose to participate.