Future Forward: Spotlight on the DSG Hub

This report lays out a practical, proportionate approach to regulating savings groups—keeping the strengths of informality while opening pathways to safer savings, better governance, and stronger links with formal finance. Drawing from field research in East Africa and India, it offers a roadmap for policymakers to design light-touch regulation that lowers risk, improves data visibility, and supports women’s economic empowerment without overwhelming groups with compliance.

This brief from Yale Inclusion Economics examines two policy levers in India—smartphone distribution and digital literacy training—and finds that while free phones offer a short-term boost, it's digital skills that create lasting impact for women’s connectivity, confidence, and well-being.