This visual Crisis to Resilience story explores digital transformation and other innovations in savings group programming implemented under Global Communities‘ Women Empowered (WE) initiative. Women Empowered (WE) promotes social, economic, and political empowerment of women through community-based savings groups. Guided by the spirit of continuous innovation and adaptation, the WE program has formed and supported more than 10,000 savings groups, reaching over 200,000 people, mostly women, in 15 countries across the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa since 2008.

Global Communities began digitizing savings groups in 2019 in Tanzania using DreamSave—a digital ledger designed by DreamStart Labs—with 13 WE groups and nearly 300 individuals. At the time this story was developed, Global Communities was digitizing WE groups in Ethiopia and preparing for another wave of digital transformation in Madagascar and Tanzania.