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Research Article

Women's groups, covariate shocks, and resilience: An evidence synthesis of past shocks to inform a response to COVID-19

[version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]
PUBLISHED 20 Jul 2023
Author details Author details

This article is included in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) collection.

Abstract

Background: Interventions with women’s groups are increasingly seen as an important strategy for advancing women’s empowerment, health, and economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, with the potential to increase the resiliency of members and their communities during widespread covariate shocks, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Methods: This evidence synthesis compiles evidence from past shocks on women’s group activities and the extent to which women’s groups mitigate the effects of shocks on members and communities. We reviewed 90 documents from academic databases, organizational reports, and additional gray literature, and included literature diverse in geography, type of women’s group, and shock.
Results: The literature suggests that covariate shocks tend to disrupt group activities and reduce group resources, but linkages to formal institutions can mitigate this impact by extending credit beyond the shock-affected resource pool. Evidence was largely supportive of women’s groups providing resilience to members and communities, though findings varied according to shock severity, group purpose and structure, and outcome measures. Further, actions to support individual resilience during a shock, such as increased payment flexibility, may run counter to group resilience. The findings of the evidence synthesis are largely consistent with emerging evidence about women’s groups and COVID-19 in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Conclusions: We finalize the paper with a discussion on policy implications, including the importance of sustainable access to financial resources for women’s group members; equity considerations surrounding the distribution of group benefits and burdens; and the potential for meaningful partnerships between women’s groups and local governments and/or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to enhance community response amidst crises.

Keywords

Women’s groups, Covariate shock, Resilience, Evidence synthesis, COVID-19

Introduction

Interventions with women’s groups are increasingly recognized as an important strategy for advancing women’s empowerment, health, and economic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Women’s groups is an umbrella term commonly used to refer to different models of groups whose membership is primarily female. Objectives of women’s groups may include promoting financial inclusion and women’s economic empowerment, organizing workers in the informal sector, and improving health outcomes among group members and their communities.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has highlighted that while acute covariate shocks pose unique challenges for women and women’s groups, women’s groups may provide members and their communities with tools to increase their resiliency to crises (Adegbite et al., 2022; de Hoop et al., 2020).1 For example, women’s groups can offer an immediate support network for members through mechanisms such as pooled resources and social capital. Groups can adapt their in-place human infrastructure to play a key role in community responses to shocks by disseminating important information, contributing to crisis responses by providing necessary household and community services, and helping members obtain access to social protection. In the case of COVID-19, Indian self-help groups (SHGs) and savings groups in sub-Saharan Africa also contributed to producing masks, operating community kitchens, and running help desks (Adegbite et al., 2022; de Hoop et al., 2020; de Hoop et al., 2021).

This evidence synthesis contributes to the existing literature by compiling evidence of how shocks affected women’s groups and their members prior to the COVID-19 crisis. We first examine how these shocks affected the implementation and activities of women’s groups in LMICs. Next, we examine the extent to which women’s groups promoted resilience for their members and communities. Previous evidence from systematic reviews and impact evaluations suggests that women’s groups with economic objectives, such as SHGs in India and savings groups in sub-Saharan Africa, can achieve positive effects on women’s empowerment and economic outcomes (e.g., Barooah et al., 2020; Brody et al., 2017). However, it is unclear whether these findings can be extrapolated to contexts experiencing covariate shocks or to the COVID-19 crisis in particular because social distancing may limit the opportunities of groups to meet (de Hoop et al., 2020).

Overall, the evidence revealed that covariate shocks tend to disrupt group activities and reduce group resources, but women’s groups can support the resilience of members and communities - though findings varied across contexts. However, for economic groups in particular, this improved resilience may come at the expense of group resources, indicating a trade-off between member resilience and group sustainability. For example, actions to support individual resilience during a shock, such as increased payment flexibility, may threaten group sustainability by depleting group resources. The evidence further indicates that linkages to formal institutions can mitigate negative effects on group resilience by providing credit beyond the shock-affected resource pool. These findings are largely consistent with emerging evidence on women’s groups and COVID-19 (Adegbite et al., 2022; Agarwal, 2021; de Hoop et al., 2021; Siwach et al., 2023), indicating that this evidence synthesis can provide important lessons for policy responses to COVID-19 in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Women’s groups and resilience

There are many different models of women’s groups, and they vary in terms of organizing objective, function, size, governance, and linkages to formal institutions (Desai et al., 2022). Groups with economic objectives, such as SHGs, village savings and loan associations (VSLAs), and rotating credit and savings associations (ROSCAs), are formed to promote savings and pool funds from which members can borrow. Other types of groups may focus on health, agriculture, advocacy, or community resource management – or a particular population group such as mothers, sexual violence survivors, or adolescent girls. Women’s groups may be standalone village or urban groups or regional network associations of groups. They may operate independently or with the support of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and/or formal financial institutions.

This broad definition of women’s groups enables an inclusive review of the evidence, but such breadth may mask important differences that limit cross-group comparisons. For example, a savings group might play a very different role than a community resource management group when responding to a particular shock. However, despite differing in function and form, most women’s groups, even as broadly defined, share some characteristics that allow for examining variation in the relationship of women’s groups to shocks across contexts.

We conceptualize resilience, our primary outcome of interest, along three dimensions: an absorptive capacity that refers to the ability to cope with or absorb shocks; an adaptive capacity that includes learning and strategic adjustments to mitigate the effects of shocks; and a transformative capacity that involves a systemic adjustment to the status quo that reduces vulnerability to shocks (Bene et al., 2015; Tanner et al., 2017; Vaughan & Frankenberger, 2018). Individual resilience can refer to individual coping mechanisms and adjustments in various domains, including food security, consumption smoothing and savings, income and employment, psychological outcomes, and health outcomes. Group resilience can refer to the short-term ability of the group to continue functioning as before the shock or to the group’s ability to adapt to the shock, and to the longer-term ability of the group to continue functioning or group sustainability. There are many theorized mechanisms through which women’s groups can enhance resilience for members in the face of covariate shocks (CARE, 2015; Diaz-Martin et al., 2023; Gram et al., 2019; Vaughan & Frankenberger, 2018; Weingärtner et al., 2017). Financial mechanisms that serve to increase members’ absorptive capacity include pooling risk and resources, social commitment to savings, and potential access to formal financial services through group linkages. For example, a VSLA or SHG may provide members with savings and credit with which to absorb the economic losses resulting from a rainfall shock (Demont, 2013; Karlan et al., 2017). Social support mechanisms may enhance members’ psychological resilience to shocks (Berry, 2015; Tol et al., 2020). Some groups facilitate learning and technical skills, such as water, sanitation, and hygiene training, and this access to new information may strengthen members’ adaptive capacity when faced with waterborne disease outbreaks (Khatibi et al., 2011). Similarly, groups provide access to information networks that enable members to adopt livelihood diversification strategies to smooth household income during shocks (Demont, 2013). Mechanisms such as collective action and group bargaining power can contribute to transformative capacity when women’s groups mobilize for system-level change, such as for more inclusive disaster response policy (Clissold et al., 2020; Fordham et al., 2011).

Our examination of both individual and group resilience highlights the existence of a possible tension between strategies that promote the resilience of groups (i.e., the group functioning and infrastructure withstanding the shock) and the resilience of group members (i.e., individual group members withstanding the shock). While the three resilience capacities discussed above (absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacity) offer a helpful background framework for categorising individual resilience, we find that evidence is largely reported in terms of absorptive capacity for individuals; that is, the literature on women’s groups and resilience tends to prioritize individual or household outcome measures of consumption smoothing attributable to pooled resources and access to credit. We also find a lack of discussion around mechanisms of group resilience, particularly in the case of aggregate shocks that may threaten group sustainability. In our discussion of the evidence, we distinguish between results related to the ways in which covariate shocks may affect women’s groups and how groups may adapt policies or activities to sustain group resilience (in Section How do Shocks Affect Women’s Groups?) and results examining evidence pertaining to individual (or household) resilience (in Section How Do Women’s Groups Mitigate the Effects of Shocks for Members?).

This review was motivated by the COVID-19 crisis, and accordingly focuses specifically on member and group resilience to acute covariate shocks. These shocks include natural disasters, disease outbreaks, conflict, economic crises, and other events that have the potential to negatively affect all members of a group simultaneously. Because of the focus on mechanisms specific to covariate shocks, such as natural disasters or COVID-19, we did not examine group members’ resilience to idiosyncratic shocks that affect members at the individual level, such as the death of a household member, or to chronic stressors such as poverty or endemic disease.

Methods

We examine both immediate and longer-term effects of covariate shocks on women’s groups and their members. In this way we add to existing evidence about the short-term effects of COVID-19 on SHG savings in India (Siwach et al., 2023) and how SHGs in India and savings groups in Nigeria may have contributed to mitigating some of the negative short-term effects of COVID-19 on agricultural productivity, consumption, and food security (Adegbite et al., 2022; Agarwal, 2021; de Hoop et al., 2021). Triangulating the findings from those studies with the findings from the evidence synthesis allows for learning about the potential longer-term effects of COVID-19 on women’s groups and their members. Our evidence synthesis is derived from academic databases, organizational reports, and additional gray literature. Using a targeted search strategy, we extracted 90 total documents from over 2800 search results.

We conducted an evidence synthesis of the literature on women’s groups and acute covariate shocks with three primary research questions in mind:

  • i. How do shocks affect women’s groups? That is, to what extent do shocks affect group resources and activities; how do women’s groups adapt to shocks; and what implementation features contribute to group resilience during shocks?

  • ii. How do women’s groups mitigate the effects of shocks for members? That is, to what extent do women’s groups increase the resilience of their members to shocks; what is the variation by shock, group type, and mechanism?

  • iii. How do women’s groups support community responses to shocks?

Our search strategy aimed to identify, consolidate, and synthesize existing evidence on the impact of shocks on women’s groups and the ability of women’s groups to mitigate the effects of shocks for their members and their communities. We searched both peer-reviewed literature in academic databases and gray literature for case studies, evaluations, and other evidence on women’s groups and shocks. We searched the following databases for literature in English:

We constructed search strings from keyword components for women’s groups and a variety of shocks. We incorporated both general and highly specific search strings to return a comprehensive list of search results. We employed search strings in both the academic databases and organization websites listed above and supplemented our results with targeted Google searches and forward/backward searching within the reference lists of relevant articles.

Our search process included academic databases of peer-reviewed articles as well as targeted searches of organizational reports, news articles, blog posts, and additional gray literature. From June to August 2020, we reviewed over 2800 search results and included 90 documents that: i) met our definitions of women’s groups and shocks, ii) were set in a LMIC and published in 1999 or later, iii) were written in English, and iv) addressed at least one of our research questions. After building the sample of included literature to review, we extracted information on the document type, geography, women’s group, shock, and content relevant to our research questions using a coding spreadsheet. Empirical studies were coded in Microsoft Excel according to research design and methodology, but we did not apply a comprehensive risk of bias assessment to appraise the quality of the evidence. The coding spreadsheet is available in Table 1.

Table 1. Included evidence (n=90).

CitationDocument
type
Study typeRegionCountryWomen's
group
Shock
Ahmed, D. (1999). Vegetable growers of BRAC and flood 1998:
a case study of a village organization in Gaibandha district.
Experiences of Deluge: Flood 1998, 77.
Organization
Report
QualitativeSouth AsiaBangladeshMicrofinance
Group
Natural
- Bangladesh
floods 1998
Alam, K., & Rahman, M. H. (2017). The role of women in disaster
resilience. Handbook of disaster risk reduction and management.
World Scientific Press, New Jersey, 697–719.
Book ChapterReviewMultipleIndia, Jamaica, Japan,
Nicaragua, Mexico
UnspecifiedNatural - Various
Anaandan, S. (2018). Kerala floods: Kudumbashree women play big
role in clean-up. The Hindu.
News ArticleQualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Kerala
Floods 2018
Androsik, A. (2020). Gendered understanding of ebola crisis in
Sierra Leone. Lessons for covid-19. Population and Economics,
4(2), 88–95.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
Mixed
Methods
Sub-Saharan
Africa
Sierra LeoneOther Savings
Group
Health - Ebola
Ashraf, N., Giné, X., & Karlan, D. (2009). Finding missing markets
(and a disturbing epilogue): Evidence from an export crop
adoption and marketing intervention in Kenya. American Journal of
Agricultural Economics, 91(4), 973–990.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QuantitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
KenyaSelf-Help GroupEconomic -
Change in export
policy
Atela, J., Gannon, K. E. and Crick, F. (2018). Climate change
adaptation among female-led micro, small and medium
enterprises in semi- arid areas: A case study from Kenya.’, in Leal
Filho, W. (ed.) Handbook of Climate Change Resilience. Cham:
Springer, pp. 1–18.
Book ChapterQualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
KenyaOther Savings
Group
Natural - Climate
shocks
Bahadur, A., Lovell, E., & Pichon, F. (2016). Effectiveness in building
resilience: Synthesis report for Oxfam's resilience outcome area.
Oxfam Research Reports.
Organization
Report
ReviewSub-Saharan
Africa
SenegalOther Savings
Group
Natural - Climate
amd weather
shocks
Bandiera, O., Buehren, N., Goldstein, M. P., Rasul, I., & Smurra, A.
(2019). The Economic lives of young women in the time of ebola:
Lessons from an empowerment program. The World Bank.
Working PaperQuantitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
Sierra LeoneELA and other
adolescent girls
groups
Health - Ebola
Bandiera, O., Buehren, N., Goldstein, M., Rasul, I., & Smurra, A.
(2020). Do school closures during an epidemic have persistent
effects? Evidence from Sierra Leone in the time of ebola. Working
Paper - Poverty Action Lab.
Working PaperQuantitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
Sierra Leone ELA and other
adolescent girls
groups
Health - Ebola
BARA & IPA. (2013). Final impact evaluation of the saving for
change program in Mali, 2009–2012.
Organization
Report
Mixed
Methods
Sub-Saharan
Africa
MaliOther Savings
Group
Multiple - lean
season, drought,
livestock disease,
conflict
Bass, J., Murray, S., Cole, G., Bolton, P., Poulton, C., Robinette, K.,
… Annan, J. (2016). Economic, social and mental health impacts
of an economic intervention for female sexual violence survivors
in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Global Mental Health,
3(19).
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QuantitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
DRCVSLAConflict
- Persistent
conflict and
mass sexual
violence
Benni, N., & Barkataky, R. (2018). The role of the Self Employed
Women’s Association (SEWA) in providing financial services to rural
women. FAO.
Organization
Report
QualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural -
Earthquake
Bermudez, L., & Matuszeski, J. (2010). Ensuring continued success:
Saving for change in older program areas of Mali. Oxfam America.
Organization
Report
QualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
MaliOther Savings
Group
Natural - Rainfall
shock
Berry, M. E. (2015). From violence to mobilization: Women, war, and
threat in Rwanda. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 20(2),
135–156.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
RwandaSelf-Help GroupConflict -
Genocide
Branco, A. de M. (2009). Women responding to drought in Brazil.
In Women, Gender and Disaster: Global Issues and Initiatives
(pp. 261–272). SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd.
Book ChapterQualitativeLatin
America and
Caribbean
BrazilCollective
Action and
Grassroots
Group
Natural -
Drought
Brickman Raredon, A. (2011). Opportunity in Haiti: Women as
agents of resilience in post-disaster reconstruction [Thesis,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology].
ThesisMixed
Methods
Latin
America and
Caribbean
HaitiMultipleNatural -
Earthquake
Brownhill, L. (2009). A climate for change: Humanitarian disaster
and the movement for the commons in Kenya. In Women, Gender
and Disaster: Global Issues and Initiatives (pp. 224–232). SAGE
Publications India Pvt Ltd.
Book ChapterQualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
KenyaMultipleConflict - Social
Unrest
Brunie, A., Fumagalli, L., Martin, T., Field, S., & Rutherford, D. (2014).
Can village savings and loan groups be a potential tool in the
malnutrition fight? Mixed method findings from Mozambique.
Children and Youth Services Review, 47, 113–120.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
Mixed
Methods
Sub-Saharan
Africa
MozambiqueMultipleNatural - Hunger
Season
Buehren, N., Chakravarty, S., Goldstein, M., Slavchevska, V., &
Sulaiman, M. (2017). Adolescent girls’ empowerment in conflict-
affected settings: Experimental evidence from South Sudan. CSAE
Conference Paper.
Conference
Paper
QuantitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
South SudanELA and other
adolescent girls
groups
Conflict - Ethnic
conflict
Camara, S., Delamou, A., Millimouno, T. M., Kourouma, K., Ndiaye,
B., & Thiam, S. (2020). Community response to the Ebola outbreak:
Contribution of community-based organisations and community
leaders in four health districts in Guinea. Global Public Health,
1–11.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
Mixed
Methods
Sub-Saharan
Africa
GuineaUnspecifiedHealth - Ebola
CARE (2015). Resilience champions: when women contribute to
the resilience of communities in the Sahel through savings and
community-based adaptation.
Organization
Report
QualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
Niger, MaliVSLAMultiple -
Various
Care. (2020). Learning Brief: VSLA and CARE Adaptations to
COVID-19 and Past Crises.
Organization
Report
ReviewSub-Saharan
Africa
Benin, Burundi,
Democratic Republic
of the Congo,
Mozambique, Niger,
Nigeria, Rwanda,
Tanzania, Uganda,
Haiti, Chad, Mali,
Sierra Leone, Somalia,
Bangladesh, Ethiopia
VSLAHealth -
Covid-19, Ebola,
HIV
Christian, P., Kandpal, E., Palaniswamy, N., & Rao, V. (2019). Safety
nets and natural disaster mitigation: evidence from cyclone Phailin
in Odisha. Climatic Change, 153(1–2), 141–164.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QuantitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Flood
Clissold, R., Westoby, R., & McNamara, K. E. (2020). Women as
recovery enablers in the face of disasters in Vanuatu. Geoforum,
113, 101–110.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeEast Asia
and Pacific
VanuatuMultipleNatural - Cyclone
Coppock, D. L., & Desta, S. (2013). Collective action, innovation,
and wealth generation among settled pastoral women in northern
Kenya. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 66(1), 95–105. JSTOR.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
Mixed
Methods
Sub-Saharan
Africa
KenyaMultipleNatural -
Drought
Corbin, J. N., & Hall, J. C. (2019). Resettlement post conflict: Risk
and protective factors and resilience among women in northern
Uganda. International Social Work, 62(2), 918–932.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
UgandaVSLAConflict
- Violence;
displacement
Darychuk, A., & Jackson, S. (2015). Understanding community
resilience through the accounts of women living in west bank
refugee camps. Affilia, 30(4), 447–460.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeMiddle East/
North Africa
(MENA)
PalestineOtherConflict
- Violence;
displacement
De, S. (2011). The whims of indian monsoons: Long-term health
consequences of early childhood exposure to the indian drought
of 2002. Young Lives Student Paper. Retrieved from:
ThesisQuantitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural -
Drought
Deepa, T. M., Rao, E. V., Patil, R. R., & Samuel, R. (2008). Operational
feasibility of establishing community reporting systems. National
Medical Journal of India, 21(4), 166–170.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
Mixed
Methods
South AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupHealth
- Infectious
diseases
Demont, T. (2013). Poverty, access to credit and absorption of
weather shocks: evidence from Indian self-help groups. CRED
working paper.
Working PaperQuantitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Rainfall
shock
Demont, T. (2022). Coping with shocks: How self-help groups
impact food security and migration. World Development, 155,
105892
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QuantitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Rainfall
shock
Dumas, T. (2016). Mitigating the impact of the ebola virus disease
on the most vulnerable households through an integrated food
and nutrition security intervention in the district of Moyamba,
Sierra Leone.
Organization
Report
QualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
Sierra LeoneVSLAHealth - Ebola
Enarson, E. (2001). We want work: Rural women in the Gujarat
drought and earthquake. Natural Hazards Research and
Applications Information Center.
Working PaperQualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaOther Savings
Group
Natural
- Earthquake,
drought
Enarson, E., Fothergill, A., & Peek, L. (2007). Gender and disaster:
Foundations and directions. In H. Rodríguez, E. L. Quarantelli, &
R. R. Dynes (Eds.), Handbook of Disaster Research (pp. 130–146).
Springer.
Book ChapterReviewMultipleMultipleCollective
Action and
Grassroots
Group
Natural -
Disaster
Falk, M.L. (2014) Gender and Buddhism in the wake of the tsunami.
In: Liamputtong P. (eds) Contemporary Socio-Cultural and Political
Perspectives in Thailand. Springer, Dordrecht.
Book ChapterQualitativeEast Asia
and Pacific
ThailandSelf-Help GroupNatural -
Tsunami
Féron, É. (2020). Reinventing conflict prevention? Women and
the prevention of the reemergence of conflict in Burundi. Conflict
Resolution Quarterly, 37(3).
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
BurundiUnspecifiedConflict - Political
unrest, violence,
displacement
Fisher, S. (2009). Sri Lankan women’s organisations responding to
post-tsunami violence. In Women, Gender and Disaster: Global
Issues and Initiatives (pp. 233–249). SAGE Publications India Pvt
Ltd.
Book ChapterQualitativeSouth AsiaSri LankaUnspecifiedNatural -
Tsunami
Fordham, M., Gupta, S., Akerkar, S., & Scharf, M. (2011). Leading
resilient development: Grassroots women's priorities, practices and
innovations. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Organization
Report
QualitativeMultipleHonduras, India,
Philippines, Turkey, Sri
Lanka
MultipleNatural - Various
(hurricane,
tsunami, floods,
earthquake)
Garikipati, S. (2008). The impact of lending to women on household
vulnerability and women’s empowerment: Evidence from India.
World Development, 36(12), 2620–2642.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QuantitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural -
Drought
Gash, M., & Gray, B. (2016). The role of financial services in building
household resilience in Burkina Faso. CGAP Clients at the Center.
Working PaperQualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
Burkina FasoOther Savings
Group
Economic -
Harvest-related
economic shocks
Ghosh (2019). After cyclone Fani, women in a migrant fishing
community start resilience fund. Mongabay Series: Environment
and Her.
BlogQualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Cyclone
Fani
Govt. of Odisha, UN, World Bank, Asian Development Bank (2019).
Damage, loss and needs assessment: Odisha (India).
Organization
Report
QualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaMultipleNatural - Cyclone
Fani
Gupta, S., & Leung, I. S. (2011). Turning good practice into
institutional mechanisms: Investing in grassroots women's
leadership to scale up local implementation of the Hyogo
Framework for Action. Huairou Commission and Groots
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Mixed
Methods
MultipleMultipleCollective
Action and
Grassroots
Group
Natural - General
Hedger, M., Singha, A., & Reddy, M. (2010). Building climate
resilience at state level: Disaster risk management and rural
livelihoods in Orissa. Strengthening Climate Resilience Discussion
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Organization
Report
ReviewSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Climate
shocks
Heltberg, R., Hossain, N., Reva, A., & Turk, C. (2013). Coping and
resilience during the food, fuel, and financial crises. Journal of
Development Studies, 49(5), 705–718.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeMultiplePhilippines, Indonesia,
Senegal, CAR
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Group
Economic - The
food, fuel, and
financial crises
during 2008–
2011
Hossain, M. Z., & Rahman, M. A. U. (2018). Pro-poor adaptation
for the urban extreme poor in the context of climate change.
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Natural
- Bangladesh
floods 1998
Huang, Y., & Wong, H. (2013). Effects of social group work with
survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake in a transitional community.
Health & Social Care in the Community, 21(3), 327–337.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeEast Asia
and Pacific
ChinaOtherNatural -
Earthquake
Jahns, E. (2014). Savings groups, shocks and coping strategies: The
case of poor rural households in El Salvador (Doctoral dissertation,
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University)).
DissertationMixed
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Caribbean
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Group
Economic - High
food prices
Joshi, C., & Bhatt, M. R. (2009). Engendering tsunami recovery in
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analysis of village-level microfinance institutions. Journal of the
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and Pacific
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Economic -
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Karlan, D., Savonitto, B., Thuysbaert, B., & Udry, C. (2017). Impact
of savings groups on the lives of the poor. Proceedings of the
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Drought
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climate change: Lessons from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Georgetown
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Through Training Programmes in Mysore City. Nature, Environment
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assessment of the differing impact of the outbreak on the women
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and the pursuit of public services in post-tsunami India. World
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technology and disaster management: Tsunami affected districts
of Tamil Nadu. International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable
Development, 4(2/3), 206–2015.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural -
Tsunami
Langlay, N. (2014). The impact of ebola virus disease on village
savings and loans associations Montserrado, Margibi, Bong and
Lofa counties. FAO.
Organization
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Mixed
Methods
Sub-Saharan
Africa
LiberiaVSLAHealth - Ebola
Larson, G., Drolet, J., & Samuel, M. (2013). The role of self-help
groups in post-tsunami rehabilitation. International Social Work,
58(5), 732–742.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural -
Tsunami
Linkow, B., & Rentschler, L. (2016). Fraying of the ties that bind:
Community-level Financial institutions and HIV/AIDS with evidence
from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Journal of African Economies,
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Peer-reviewed
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QuantitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
South AfricaOther Savings
Group
Health - HIV/
AIDS during
period of rapidly
increasing
mortality
LTS International. (2015). ECRP flood study: Assessing the
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Cloudburst
Mitchell, M. (2018). The Curse of the Kosi. Heifer International. BlogQualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Floods
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adaptation to climate change in urban centers: Case studies of
vulnerability and resilience in Kenya and Nicaragua. The World
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shocks
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HIV/AIDS prevention and response: Examples of practice in post-
conflict settings. International Peacekeeping, 20(4), 469–485.
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Africa
Sierra Leone,
Democratic Republic of
the Congo
MultipleHealth - HIV
Mukti (2020). Mukti provides aid to the SHG women group at
Radhakantapur Gram Panchayat.
News ArticleQualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Cyclone
Amphan
Mulyasari, F., & Shaw, R. (2014). Risk communication through
community-based society organizations as local response to
disaster in Bandung, Indonesia. In Risks and conflicts: Local
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management. World Bank.
BlogQualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Cyclone
Phailin
Nannozi, A. (2019). A case study: Exploring the influence of the
informal financial sector on food security among smallholder
farmers in Uganda, Greater Luweero.
ThesisQualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
UgandaVSLA; Other
Savings Group
Economic - Price
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Bangladesh floods. Economic and Political Weekly, 34(14), 801–803.
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Bangladesh
floods 1998
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Activism in Jakarta. Canadian Journal of Development Studies/
Revue canadienne d'études du développement, 22(1), 51–
80..2001.9668802
Peer-reviewed
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QualitativeSouth AsiaIndonesiaCollective
Action and
Grassroots
Group
Conflict - Sexual
violence
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QualitativeMultiplePeru, Brazil, Guatemala,
Nicaragua, El Salvador,
South Africa, Ethiopia,
Burkina Faso, Niger, Sri
Lanka
MultipleNatural -
Disaster
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women’s vulnerabilities to multiple disasters. Disasters, 34(1),
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Peer-reviewed
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cyclone
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Earthquake
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tackling pandemic in Kerala, says former chief secretary.
News ArticleQualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupHealth - Covid-19
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livelihoods approach for climate change adaptation in Western
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QualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Climate
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psychosocial capacity building for women in a Chinese rural village.
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rebuilding Montserrat. In Women, Gender and Disaster: Global
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MontserratOtherNatural
- Volcanic
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Solution Exchange - Disaster Management and the Gender
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Organization
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QualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaSelf-Help GroupNatural - Floods
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EthiopiaOther Savings
Group
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Drought
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food insecurity in crisis conditions: The case of Epworth in Harare,
Zimbabwe. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 7(2–3),
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Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
Mixed MethodsSub-Saharan
Africa
ZimbabweOtherEconomic -
Massive inflation
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J., Adaku, A., Au, T. M., Brown, F. L., Bryant, R. A., Garcia-Moreno,
C., Musci, R. J., Ventevogel, P., White, R. G., & van Ommeren, M.
(2020). Guided self-help to reduce psychological distress in South
Sudanese female refugees in Uganda: a cluster randomised trial.
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Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
Mixed
Methods
Sub-Saharan
Africa
UgandaSelf-Help GroupConflict - Conflict
Weingärtner, L., Pichon, F., Simonet, C. (2017). How self-help
groups strengthen resilience: A study of Tearfund’s approach to
tackling food insecurity in protracted crises in Ethiopia. Overseas
Development Institute (ODI) Report.
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Mixed
methods
Sub-Saharan
Africa
EthiopiaSelf-Help GroupNatural -
Drought, floods,
hailstorms
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BlogQualitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
Democratic Republic of
the Congo
UnspecifiedHealth - Ebola
Wineman, A., Mason, N. M., Ochieng, J., & Kirimi, L. (2017). Weather
extremes and household welfare in rural Kenya. Food Security, 9(2),
281–300.
Peer-reviewed
Journal Article
QuantitativeSub-Saharan
Africa
KenyaOther Savings
Group
Natural -
Drought
Yaron, G., Wilson, D., Dumble, S., & Murphy, B. (2017). Measuring
changes in household resilience as a result of BRACED activities in
Myanmar. Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes
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QuantitativeEast Asia
and Pacific
MyanmarVSLA; Other
Savings Group
Natural - Climate
extremes and
disasters
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disaster relief and recovery. Population Council.
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QualitativeSouth AsiaIndiaMultipleNatural -
Earthquake

To complement and deepen our analysis, we provide an in-depth description of how women’s groups responded to the Ebola epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. We include both the 2014–2016 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa as well as the 2018–2020 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which—similar to COVID-19—devastated families, disrupted economic and social activities, and resulted in government policies that placed restrictions on mobility, large gatherings, and livelihoods (Langlay, 2014; WHO, 2018). This spotlight on the Ebola crisis allows for a more detailed exploration of the interaction between women’s groups and a covariate health shock that requires social distancing, providing in-depth context to complement the findings for each of our research questions.

Findings

Our included literature, as shown in Table 2, are diverse in geography, type of women’s group, and shock.2 Though women’s groups in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the most widely represented, studies are included from women’s groups in low-and middle-income countries across four continents. The groups in the included studies demonstrate a wide variety of goals and organizing purposes—indeed, many groups formed around multiple livelihoods, health, and financial interests. In terms of the types of shocks represented in the sample, we find more literature on natural disasters (56 out of 90 studies) than other acute covariate shocks (e.g., 15 studies on health shocks, 10 on conflict shocks, and seven on economic shocks). The diversity in our included literature allows for an examination of the varied interactions between different types of women’s groups, acute covariate shocks, and the resilience of group members and their communities. We also purposively included studies with outcomes in a wide range of domains, including domains that may not be immediately obvious when discussing resilience. For example, we included outcomes related to pregnancy risks for adolescent girls, which can increase without the protection of time in school during pandemics (Bandiera et al., 2019).

Table 2. Overview of included literature.

Documents Coded (90)Peer-reviewed Journal Article (38) Organization Report (23)
Blog/News Article (7) Book Chapter (11)
Working Paper/Dissertation/Thesis/Conference Paper (11)
GeographySub-Saharan Africa (37) South Asia (33) East Asia & Pacific (8)
Latin America & Caribbean (4) Middle East & North Africa (1)
Multiple (7)
Type of ShockNatural (56) Health (15) Conflict (10) Economic (7) Multiple (2)
Type of Women’s GroupSelf-Help Groups (27) VSLA & Other Savings Group (26)
Microfinance Groups (3) Collective Action & Grassroots Groups (4)
ELA and other adolescent girls’ groups (3) Multiple* (14)
Unspecified (7) Other (6)
Organizing PurposeFinancial (31) Health (5) Livelihoods (3) Multiple (43) Other (8)
MethodologyQuantitative (17) Qualitative (52) Mixed Methods (15) Review (6)
Question for document codingYesNo
Peer Reviewed?3852
Discusses the effect of shocks on women's group activities and/or resources? 2961
    If Yes: Positive (1) Negative (25) Neutral (1) Mixed (2)
Discusses group response or adaptation to shock? 2565
Discusses women’s groups playing a role in community response?3753
Describes the role of women’s groups in the resilience of members to shocks?4644
    If Yes, list of resilience indicator(s) discussed:
        Food Security, Consumption Smoothing, & Saving (15)
        Psychological/Mental State (8) Credit (1)
        Income, Economic Security, & Employment/Migration (8)
        Composite Index (2) Pregnancy (2) Disaster Preparedness (1)
        School Enrollment & Attendance (3) Empowerment/Status (1)
        Height-to-Age Ratio (1) Access to resources/information (1)
Methodology includes a comparison group?2070
    If Yes, list of resilience indicator(s) discussed:
        Food Security, Consumption Smoothing, & Saving (10)
        Psychological/Mental State (4) Credit (1)
        Income, Economic Security, & Employment/Migration (4)
        Composite Index (2) Pregnancy (2) Disaster Preparedness (1)
        School Enrollment & Attendance (3) Height-to-Age Ratio (1)
        Access to Resources/Information (1)

*Frequently incudes savings, lending, and/or advocacy components

Quantitative and mixed methods research on the impacts of acute covariate shocks to women’s groups—and any resilience that groups may provide to members—is sparse. The majority of the literature available are qualitative in nature, and few studies are peer-reviewed. Out of 90 documents included in our sample, we identified 38 peer-reviewed journal articles, of which 32 used a quantitative or mixed methods research approach.

How do shocks affect women’s groups? This section discusses evidence on the effects of shocks on women’s groups activities and resources, features and adaptations through which women’s groups may increase resilience to shocks, and how shocks may serve as the impetus for new women’s groups.

The effects of shocks on women’s group activities and resources, and group resilience

The evidence on the effects of acute covariate shocks on women’s groups suggests consistently negative impacts on women’s group resources and activities (25 out of 29 documents reporting on this research question indicated an adverse impact on group resources and/or activities), indicating that covariate shocks can adversely affect group resilience. Women’s groups were unable to meet as frequently, ceased certain activities and services, and occasionally dissolved altogether (Bandiera et al., 2019; BARA & IPA, 2013; Heltberg et al., 2013; Langlay, 2014; Pollard, 2003; Soares & Mullings, 2009). Some women’s groups changed their group function and adapted their activities to support community responses to a covariate shock, such as engaging in emergency warning communications (Féron, 2020; Mulyasari & Shaw, 2014), information dissemination (CARE, 2020a), and implementation of rescue and relief programming (Mehta, 2009) – and this is discussed in greater detail in Section How Do Women’s Groups Support Community Responses to Shocks?.

Covariate shocks tend to have deleterious effects on group resources and resilience due to the majority of members experiencing difficulty in contributing to group funds (i.e., through savings contributions or loan repayments) while simultaneously needing to draw upon group financial services such as credit and social insurance to cope with shocks (Androsik, 2020; Atela et al., 2018; Bermudez & Matuszeski, 2010; Gash & Gray, 2016; Heltberg et al., 2013; Langlay, 2014; Nannozi, 2019; Nayar & Faisal, 1999). This drastic reduction in the supply of group resources, combined with a sudden increase in demand, may pose a serious challenge to group sustainability and resilience. Covariate shocks may also increase uncertainty around the costs and benefits of group membership. For example, a study during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa found that individuals were less likely to continue membership in informal risk sharing networks due to the increased likelihood that other group members would die before repaying their loans (Linkow & Rentschler, 2016). Similarly, a women’s group affected by an acute covariate shock faces a sustainability challenge if members perceive that the cost of group membership is not offset by the anticipated benefits of pooled resources.

Features and adaptations of women’s groups to increase resilience to shocks

There is limited evidence specifying the ways in which certain group models or implementation features can contribute to the ability of the group, and/or its members, to withstand shocks, but the existing literature provides some insights into the importance of organizational linkages, flexible policies, and social capital. The primary indicator of a group’s ability to persist and function during a covariate shock is the presence of a formal linkage between the women’s group and NGOs, financial institutions, and/or other women’s groups (Coppock & Desta, 2013; Demont, 2013; Demont, 2022; Khandker et al., 2015). Linkages to external financial services and resources allow for uninterrupted access to credit for group members, as the resource pool is not constrained to the shock-affected women’s group; that is, the sudden increase in demand for resources during a shock does not threaten group sustainability because the linkage to an external organization prevents a simultaneous decrease in the resource supply.

We also found some evidence that women’s groups adapted their policies around member contributions and share-outs in an effort to mitigate the impact of shocks. Some savings groups timed the share-outs to coincide with the beginning of the lean (pre-harvest) season (BARA & IPA, 2013; Brunie et al., 2014), while other savings groups implemented shorter loan cycles and new emergency funds to better cope with recurrent shocks (CARE, 2020a). Women’s groups in India set up a new, banked resilience fund in Odisha after cyclone Fani (Ghosh, 2019), and the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) created a Livelihood Security Fund tailored to the needs of members living in disaster-prone areas of Gujarat, India (Benni & Barkataky, 2018). Another adaptation includes the implementation of increased flexibility around contribution amounts during a negative shock, but this adaptation highlights a possible tension between the resilience of groups (i.e., the group infrastructure and functioning withstanding the shock) and the resilience of group members (i.e., individual group members withstanding the shock). For example, Demont (2022) found that policies of compulsory savings were central to group resilience after covariate weather shocks, but Khandker, Khalily, and Samad (2015) found that more flexible policies (e.g., flexibility on loan repayment) were important for individual resilience during shocks.

Descriptions of women’s groups’ adaptation to shocks rarely speak to the implications of these adaptations, such as how these changes may alter the women’s group implementation or effectiveness, or whether these adaptations are sustained after a crisis. A notable exception is Ray-Bennett (2010), who examined how a policy change that prioritized women’s group resources for its most vulnerable members during a shock produced unintended adverse consequences, including group tension and conflict. After a major cyclone hit India in 1999, the NGO managing SHGs in the affected region implemented a policy known as a “vulnerability analysis” approach, which targeted group resources such as credit to poor group members over non-poor members of the same caste. While the intent of this approach was to promote equity, it resulted in the less vulnerable members exhibiting “extreme hostility” towards more vulnerable members that received priority. They “exerted extreme pressure” on the vulnerable recipients to deposit savings and repayments regularly regardless of their difficulties, and, if they failed, were met with "verbal abuse and fiery argument" (p. 252). Ultimately, the most vulnerable were unable to receive any further credit – which "reproduced and re-intensified local gender and class hierarchies, with more privileged women receiving far greater benefit than the poorer" (p. 253). SHGs that did not adopt the vulnerability analysis appeared to fare better than those that did, as this helped to "diffuse the pressure of the least vulnerable group members on the activities of the SHG" (p. 253). The findings of Ray-Bennett (2010) reveal that the implications of women’s group adaptations to shocks is an important—yet understudied—topic in the literature.

Women’s group respondents facing recurrent droughts in Northern Kenya also cited a number of factors important for group sustainability that are closely related to the social capital embedded in groups, including unity and social cohesion, transparency and accountability of group leadership, and the appropriate balance of incentives and discipline in order to “instill an ethos of shared rights and responsibilities” (Coppock & Desta, 2013, p. 100).

Shocks as an impetus for the formation of groups

We also examined how shocks may serve as the impetus for new women’s groups to form. Women’s groups may form organically after a shock as a way for members to provide psychosocial support to one another (Berry, 2015; Huang & Wong, 2013; Sim et al., 2019; Tol et al., 2020), to pool resources for survival (Corbin & Hall, 2019; Falk, 2014; Porter, 2001; Tawodzera, 2012), and to advocate for inclusion in community response (Clissold et al., 2020; Fordham et al., 2011).

In some cases, large covariate shocks such as natural disasters and war may attract NGOs to a region to distribute assistance. For example, BRAC began operations in Bangladesh in 1972 as a small-scale relief and rehabilitation project to help refugees after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 (Chowdhury & Bhuiya, 2004). Because many NGOs prioritize women in their aid response, an increase in NGO activity may produce an increase in the proliferation and activity of women’s groups (Kruks-Wisner, 2011; Yonder et al., 2005). Kruks-Wisner describes how the Tamil Nadu state in India experienced “two tsunamis” – the initial Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, followed by “a wave [that] pumped unprecedented amounts of aid, materials, and personnel into the affected region” (2011). Many of these newly-arrived NGOs worked with SHGs to provide support and connect women to government officials for advocacy purposes during the recovery process. The relationship between women’s groups and NGOs is bidirectional, as NGOs may establish women’s groups as part of their organizational response, and groups of women may start groups or formalize existing groups after a disaster in order to attract NGO partnerships. For example, after civil conflict in Liberia, many women organized into women’s groups in an “entrepreneurial attempt” to access donor funding that prioritized disbursement to women (Fuest, 2008).

How do women’s groups mitigate the effects of shocks for members? We next reviewed the literature to assess the extent to which participation in women’s groups is associated with member resilience during an acute covariate shock. We found 46 documents that included evidence on the role of women’s groups in the resilience of members to covariate shocks. Most of this evidence (26 documents) consisted of qualitative interviews with group members and focused on member experiences, without comparison to a control population of non-group members or women without access to groups. These interviews do not provide quantifiable evidence of resilience, but the shared experiences of the women interviewed supply valuable detail and context often lacking in quantitative studies for how group mechanisms produce resilience. For example, women’s groups that formed in the wake of the Rwandan genocide testified to the importance of the group for collective grieving and emotional support as a way to cope with the tragedy of lost family members and displacement (Berry, 2015). Members of economic SHGs stressed the importance of group membership in accumulating savings and group-based credit to better absorb economic losses due to natural disasters or rainfall shocks – that is, economic SHGs contributed to members’ absorptive capacity (Coppock & Desta, 2013; Gash & Gray, 2016), and members of agricultural groups attributed their ability to adapt to price shocks (i.e., adaptive capacity) to shared group storage resources and trainings from group-affiliated NGOs (Nannozi, 2019).

To address the empirical evidence on the extent to which women’s groups increase resilience to shocks, we limited our analysis to studies with a control or comparison group. Table 3 contains a summary of the included empirical studies (n=20).

Table 3. Summary of empirical studies (n=20).

CitationCountryWomen’s Group
Intervention
ShockIdentification
strategy
DesignKey outcome measures
(describe)
Key resultsOther results
Bahadur, A., Lovell, E., & Pichon, F. (2016).
Effectiveness in building resilience: Synthesis
report for Oxfam’s resilience outcome area. Oxfam
Research Reports. Retrieved from https://
oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/
handle/10546/620103/er-effectiveness-resilience-
building-080216-en.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Senegal (central
area)
Farmers received
comprehensive intervention,
which included savings
groups (as well as weather
insurance, disaster risk
reduction activities, access
to credit, and agricultural
support). Participants
in savings groups were
“primarily women.” Impacts
applied to the whole
intervention; they were not
attributable to savings groups
alone.
Lean season in arid
regions; high levels of
climate-related food
insecurity. Study conducted
2013–15.
Not specified.Design not specified. Results given
for beneficiary households and
comparison households.
Coping Strategy Index (CSI):
Measures how households
cope with food shortages.
Higher score means more
frequent/intense coping
mechanisms.
Food Consumption Score (FCS):
Reflects number of meals per
day; higher percentage means
more food consumption.
CSI: Both groups increased their strategies
for coping with food insecurity challenges.
Beneficiary households increased CSI
scores by 1.7 percentage points, while
comparison households increased CSI
scores by 7.8 percentage points (no
indication of statistical significance
provided). Project households were more
likely to use savings as a coping strategy
(instead of borrowing, using credit, etc.).
FCS: Both groups decreased food
consumption, on average. Comparison
households decreased FCS from 56% to
29% from 2013 to 2015, while project
households decreased FCS from 59%
to 54% (no indication of statistical
significance provided).
Beneficiary households
were more likely to
use solar energy and
to produce higher rice
yields than comparison
households, but it
is unclear whether
these outcomes were
due to savings group
participation.
Bandiera, O., Buehren, N., Goldstein, M. P., Rasul,
I., & Smurra, A. (2019). The economic lives of
young women in the time of Ebola: Lessons from
an empowerment program. The World Bank.
Retrieved from https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/
pdf/10.1596/1813-9450-8760
Sierra Leone
(Port Loko,
Kambia,
Moyamba, and
Pujehun)
BRACs Empowerment and
Livelihood for Adolescents
(ELA). Club for girls (ages
18–25) to meet and gain
livelihood skills, trainings,
and reproductive health
knowledge.
2014 Ebola outbreak.
Villages were categorized
as high or low Ebola-
disruption villages (binary
shock indicator). Index
score of disruption includes
school and health facility
closures or disruptions;
villages with index score
above 75th percentile
scored as “high” disruption
(17% of villages in sample).
2x2 factorial
design—randomized
controlled trial (RCT)
for treatment, quasi-
random for shock.
ELA randomly assigned to 150
villages; 50 control villages. Baseline
data collected in early 2014 (start
of outbreak); endline in 2016 (near
end of outbreak). Young cohort
(ages 12–17) and older cohort (ages
18–25). N = 4,790 (17% attrition; no
differential attrition of treatment
group). Difference-in-differences
(DD) analysis, interaction term for
treatment*shock estimate.
School enrollment: whether or
not a respondent was enrolled
in school.
Literacy skills: self-reported
abilities to read simple text;
reading comprehension;
writing complete sentences;
etc. Aggregated and scaled on
0–100 index (average baseline
score 24.6).
Numeracy skills: self-reported
abilities to perform basic
counting; simple calculations;
working with fractions; etc.
Aggregated and scaled on
0–100 index (average baseline
score).
Out-of-wedlock pregnancy:
from survey.
ELA mitigated the impacts of Ebola
disruption. For the younger cohort, school
enrollment dropped 16.6 percentage
points in highly disrupted control villages
but declined only 8.1 percentage points
in disrupted-treatment villages (p <
0.1). For younger girls, Ebola disruption
reduced literacy (numeracy) scores by
12.1 percentage points (7.3%) in control
villages, but ELA offset around 73% (99%)
of these reductions (p < 0.01). For the
older cohort, 93% of the loss in numeracy
skills was offset by ELA (p < 0.01).
Out-of-wedlock pregnancies rose by 7.2
percentage points in high-disruption
villages, but this increase was completely
mitigated in treatment villages (p < 0.05).
The older cohort realized
a significant increase in
transactional sex and
rape in high-disruption
treatment villages (5.4
percentage points),
but there was no
corresponding increase
in pregnancy, which
suggests that the
treatment increased
contraceptive knowledge
and use.
Bandiera, O., Buehren, N., Goldstein, M. P., Rasul,
I., & Smurra, A. (2020). Do school closures during
an epidemic have persistent effects? Evidence
from Sierra Leone in the time of Ebola. Retrieved
from http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uctpimr/
research/ELA_SL.pdf
(Follow-up to Bandiera et al. [2019])
Sierra Leone
(Port Loko,
Kambia,
Moyamba, and
Pujehun)
BRACs ELA. Club for girls
(ages 18–25) to meet and
gain livelihood skills, trainings,
and reproductive health
knowledge.
Same as Bandiera et al. (2019) but renames “high
disruption” village to “high
pregnancy risk” village.
2x2 factorial design—
RCT for treatment;
quasi-random for
shock (DD analysis).
See info for Bandiera et al. (2019).
Included additional round of data
collection in 2019–20 of 2852
respondents (~ 60% of original
sample; no differential attrition of
treatment group). Also included
surveys of 1368 partners of original
sample.
Included follow-up data
for school enrollment,
contraceptive use, and
pregnancy outcomes from
Bandiera et al. (2019).
Included additional partner
characteristics (aversion to
gender-based violence [GBV],
education, etc.).
Short-term results are not substantively
different from those reported in Bandiera et al. (2019).
At follow-up: Highly disrupted villages had
persistently lower enrollment rates and
higher pregnancy rates than villages less
impacted by Ebola. The ELA clubs also
had positive effects on education after
Ebola with a more limited fall in school
enrollment post-pandemic in treatment
villages than in control villages.
For the older cohort, the positive
treatment effect on increased
contraceptive use in disrupted villages
remained statistically significant.
The survey of partners
revealed more favorable
traits among partners
of treatment group
women compared to
control group women,
but this analysis was
not interacted with the
disruption of the Ebola
shock.
Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology &
Innovations for Poverty Action. (2013). Final impact
evaluation of the saving for change program in
Mali, 2009–2012. Retrieved from https://www.
freedomfromhunger.org/sites/default/files/
SavingforChangeMaliResearchFullReportMay2013.
pdf
Mali (Ségou)Women-only groups, self-
managed savings and credit
groups (Saving for Change
program). No external capital.
Share-out timing often
coincided with periods of high
cash-flow requirements.
Lean period (beginning
in May/June) is the only
covariate shock that was
quantitatively analyzed.
Study period was 2009–12.
RCT.500 villages randomly assigned
to treatment or control. N=5954;
households; included big
households of multiple subfamily
units and small households with
one head of household. Baseline
and endline surveys administered to
full sample. Shock-specific analysis
was conducted with high-frequency
sample: 600 randomly selected
women from both treatment and
control groups. High-frequency
sample was surveyed every two
weeks or every three months,
depending on survey group.
Food consumption: Measured
with one-week recall
survey. Administered to
high-frequency subsample.
Frequency for this specific
survey component is unclear:
somewhere between every
two weeks and every three
months between June 2010
and January 2012.
Food security: Adapted for
high-frequency sample
from 17-question Freedom
From Hunger food security
index. Three-month recall.
Frequency for this specific
survey component is unclear:
somewhere between every
two weeks and every three
months between June 2010
and January 2012.
Food consumption: For the high-frequency
sample, households in treatment villages
experienced a smaller decline in food
consumption during the lean season.
This effect is statistically significant only
for the subset of small households (not
full sample or large households). That is,
small households in treatment villages
consumed, on average, 0.39 USD more
than small households in control villages
(p < 0.05).
Note. Unclear unit/transformation for
coefficient 0.39 USD.
No significant
differences in food
security index for
treatment households
during the lean season.
Bass, J., Murray, S., Cole, G., Bolton, P., Poulton,
C., Robinette, K., ... Annan, J. (2016). Economic,
social and mental health impacts of an economic
intervention for female sexual violence survivors
in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Global
Mental Health, 3.
DRC (South Kivu)Women-only village savings
and loan associations
(VSLAs); received training
but no outside capital
from nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs).
Civil conflict (ongoing since
2004; study conducted
in 2010). Conducted
specifically among
victims of sexual violence
(SV) in conflict-affected
communities.
RCT.Study-eligible women (SV survivors;
n=301) participated in VSLAs
alongside other women from
community. VSLAs were randomized
to immediate start (treatment)
and wait-list controls. Outcomes
measured with baseline/endline
questionnaire. 17% attrition (per
protocol analysis conducted).
Per capita food consumption:
measured with seven-day
recall survey, including food
purchases and food produced
by household.
Internalized stigma: measured
with survey; produced
summary score of 0–3.
Per capita food consumption: 25%
greater increase (p=0.01) from baseline
to endline for treatment group compared
to controls (but control group still had
higher expenditure in CDF at both time
periods; highest consumption per capita
is still < 1 USD).
Internalized stigma: Both groups realized
reductions in stigma, but women in
treatment group reported more than 10%
greater reduction in internalized stigma
than those in control groups (p=0.038).
Marginally significant
results include women in
treatment group having
about 1.5 more animals
for breeding and a
smaller reduction (17%)
in paid hours worked
than women in control
group.
Nonsignificant
outcomes: Mental
health functioning
and additional social
outcomes.
Buehren, N., Chakravarty, S., Goldstein, M.,
Slavchevska, V., & Sulaiman, M. (2017). Adolescent
girls’ empowerment in conflict-affected settings:
Experimental evidence from South Sudan. CSAE
Conference Paper
South SudanAdolescent girls—BRAC
Adolescent Girls Initiatives
(AGI). Groups for socializing,
livelihoods, and life skills
training.
Conflict of December
2013 (affected about half
the sample). Girls were
affected if they answered
“yes” to at least one of
seven questions (house
looted, household member
died, etc.).
RCT.120 eligible villages were
randomized to treatment or
control. Cluster random sample
of 35 girls from each village was
surveyed. N = 3219 baseline
respondents (after dropping one
area due to security concerns).
Baseline survey in 2010. Extensive
attrition resulted in random cross-
section endline in 2014–15 (not
same girls as baseline). N = 2273
endline respondents; n = 1558
who answered all relevant survey
questions. Intention-to-treat (ITT)
impact estimated using endline
cross-section only; model included
interaction conflict*treat. Model
tested program impact for 40
outcomes; no correction for multiple
hypothesis testing.
Employment: Several
subcomponents, including any
income-generating activities
(IGAs), self-employment, wage
employment, farm/non-farm
self-employment, income,
hours worked, control over
earnings.
School enrollment: binary
variable (currently enrolled in
school=1).
Employment: Beneficial effects of program
on employment were wiped out for girls
affected by the conflict.
School enrollment: Conflict led to 6.8
percentage-point decrease in control
villages but no significant decrease
in enrollment in treatment villages (p < 0.1).
Many other outcomes
examined (human
capital, food security,
assets, empowerment,
savings, gender roles,
etc.). No meaningful
differences between
treatment and control
groups for conflict-
affected girls.
Christian, P., Kandpal, E., Palaniswamy, N., & Rao, V.
(2019). Safety nets and natural disaster mitigation:
evidence from cyclone Phailin in Odisha. Climatic
Change, 153(1–2), 141–164. Retrieved from https://
doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-02364-8
India (Odisha)Women-only SHGs (formed
by Targeted Rural Initiatives
for Poverty Termination
and Infrastructure and the
National Rural Livelihoods
Mission); SHGs were
federated and linked to
external public/private
services.
Cyclone Phailin (October
2013). Rainfall shock
measured continuously as
natural log of deviations
from monthly historical
median rainfall (validated
with use of surveys about
flooding, etc. during
Phailin).
Quasi-experimental
(non-random
assignment). Triple
difference model to
estimate ITT effect.
Assigned to treatment versus
comparison at village/community
level. Baseline balance table
suggests comparability. Baseline
survey in 2011 and endline survey
in 2014 (N = 2874 households). 20
outcomes examined; no correction
for multiple hypothesis testing.
Food consumption: Followed
the Indian National Sample
Survey.
Non-food consumption:
Followed the Indian National
Sample Survey.
Food consumption: No significant
difference between treatment and
comparison households similarly impacted
by shock; group membership did not
mitigate reductions in food expenditure
after Phailin.
Non-food consumption: Households in
treatment villages spent, on average,
about 785 rupees more per capita than
comparison households (p < 0.05). That is,
group membership offset the decline in
non-food expenditure after Phailin.
Large but nonsignificant
coefficient on
expenditures for
women’s goods suggests
that group membership
may “buffer” some
of the reduction in
this category. No
significant differences
in other categories of
expenditures.
Significant increase
in number of current
loans held by treatment
households.
Of six civic engagement
outcomes, one was
significant: Women in
treatment villages were
more likely to be aware
of the last village council
meeting.
De, S. (2011). The whims of Indian monsoons:
Long-term health consequences of early childhood
exposure to the Indian drought of 2002. Young Lives
Student Paper.
India (Andhra
Pradesh)
Targeted program (IKP) to
extend SHGs to rural poor
women (below the poverty
line). Program is government-
sponsored, and SHGs are
bank linked.
Drought of 2002 (driest
monsoon season since
1960). Districts were scored
as having been affected by
the drought if rainfall was
at least 20% deficient from
long period average (shock
is binary variable).
Longitudinal analysis;
non-random
assignment to
treatment. Panel data
(three waves) analyzed
with differenced
Gaussian mixture
model (GMM) model.
Six (poorest) of 22 districts were
enrolled in program during
drought (not random). These six districts
composed treatment group; other
16 districts served as comparison
group. Three waves of Young Lives
survey (2002; 2007; 2009–10)
collected anthropometric data on
children. Balanced panel: Young
cohort (born 2001–02): N=1259.
Older cohort (born 1994–95):
N=802. Approximately 30%
attrition (non-random attrition
with no correction, but author
sees no evidence of attrition bias
on outcome data). Differenced
GMM model with twice-lagged
health status to estimate impact
of household having access to IKP
program during drought.
Health status: World Health
Organization height-for-age
(HAZ) z score.
Health status: The drought had significant
negative impacts on both treatment and
comparison groups (more severe for
younger cohort). The coefficient on the
interaction term of drought * program is
positive but not significant.
Demont, T. (2013). Poverty, access to credit and
absorption of weather shocks: Evidence from Indian
self-help groups. CRED Working Paper.
Demont, T. (2022). Coping with shocks: How self-help
groups impact food security and migration. World
Development, 155, 105892.
India (Jharkhand)Women-only SHGs; bank
linked
Rainfall shock (2004–09).
Measured as a continuous
variable; standardized
difference from norm.
A 1 standard deviation
(SD) reduction in rainfall
(drought) resulted in an
average loss of over 50% of
agricultural yields.
Rainfall shock (2004–09).
Measured as a binary
variable. Shock is present if
rainfall was at least 0.5 SDs
below norm (contrast with
Demont, 2013).
Quasi-experimental.
Random allocation
at village level to
treatment and control.
Random selection of
households analyzed
using DD model.
Self-selection into
SHGs in treatment
villages.
Study participants were randomly
selected from within a stratified
random sample of villages. A
random sample of households from
comparison villages (no SHGs) was
also included. Total sample size was
1080 households. Three rounds
of household panel data analyzed
through DD technique.
Same sample as Demont (2013). In
the 2022 study, treatment is defined
as a household within a treatment
village instead of a household
participating in an SHG (contrast
with Demont, 2013).
Food consumption: Measured
with one-week recall survey,
administered right after
harvest (when households
were likely to have extra)
Food security: Annual survey
asks household to recall
each month of past year: In
month X, could all household
members enjoy three meals
per day?
Credit: Survey about loans
taken in prior two years.
After years with a negative rainfall shock,
households in comparison villages lost,
on average, 1.6 months of adequate food,
while households in treatment villages
lost 0.9 months on average. That is,
households in treatment villages realized
a 59% reduction (p < 0.05) in loss of food
security during a rainfall shock.
In the 2022 study, households in treatment
villages experienced an average of one
month without sufficient food, compared
to two months in control villages (p < 0.10).
After a shock, households in treatment
villages increased their probability
of borrowing by ~16%, while control
households decreased their probability
of borrowing by ~50% - indicating that
treatment villages had better access to
credit after a shock.
Households in treatment
villages were 35% more
likely to migrate for work
(and realized over a 40%
increase in migration
income or remittances)
in the year after a rainfall
shock than households
in comparison villages.
In the 2022 study, these
estimates increase
to 50% more likely to
migrate, producing a
60% increase in income.
Garikipati, S. (2008). The impact of lending to
women on household vulnerability and women’s
empowerment: Evidence from India. World
Development, 36(12), 2620–2642. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.11.008
India (Andhra
Pradesh)
Women-only SHGs; bank
linked
Drought (2001–02).
Respondents were asked
about their vulnerability
during “the last drought.”
Drought as a shock is not
measured quantitatively;
it is perceived by the
respondent.
Not specified.Study design not specified. Surveyed
117 households (participated
in SHG) and 174 comparison
households in 2001; surveyed
again in 2002. Sample included
only married-couple households,
and male/female respondents
were chosen at random. Surveys
were used to construct binary
vulnerability and empowerment
indicators. T-tests determined
significant differences in means.
Drought-related vulnerability:
self-perceived ability to meet
needs. Points were given
for each type of need the
household was able to meet
during the last drought (e.g.,
all food needs, health needs),
as well as if the household
avoided selling assets and
expected to cope similarly in
next drought. Instrument was
then collapsed into binary
indicator for vulnerable/not
vulnerable, with cutoff around
lowest 30th percentile.
T-test revealed significant difference in
means of drought-related vulnerability
between treatment and comparison
households. 40% of treatment households
were not vulnerable compared to 26% of
comparison households (p < 0.05). Logit
regression shows that duration in program
is associated with higher probability of no
vulnerability.
Treatment households
were more likely to have
livelihood diversification.
Participation in SHGs
is also associated
with lower levels of
women’s empowerment,
sometimes referred to
as the “impact paradox”.
Jahns, E. (2014). Savings groups, shocks and coping
strategies: The case of poor rural households in El
Salvador (Doctoral dissertation, Fletcher School of
Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University).
El Salvador
(rural eastern;
communities
with high poverty
rates)
Savings groups facilitated
by NGO as part of larger
intervention involving
agricultural training and
resources. Most groups
consisted only of women,
some had only men, and
some were mixed. Some
groups also incorporated
emergency funds and/or
loans. No groups received
outside capital.
High global market prices
and bad harvests in 2010
led to the Hungry Season
of 2011.
Non-random
assignment to
treatment; non-
random selection into
study. Comparison
communities
chosen for matching
characteristics. Linear
probability model used
to estimate association
of treatment
community with
outcome.
Case study with mixed-methods
nested design. 13 communities
selected for maximum variation
(eight with savings groups;
five comparison selected on
matching characteristics). Heads of
households from each community
randomly selected for study.
Qualitative interviews conducted in
2010–11 to structure quantitative
survey instrument administered in
2012. Linear probability model used
to estimate association between
living in community with savings
groups and successful coping
strategies. N=276 households.
Successful coping: Binary
variable. A household coped
successfully with the hungry
season of 2011 (April–August)
if no one in the household
experienced hunger in the
previous 12 months (surveyed
in 2012).
The coefficient on savings groups was
consistently positive: Households in
communities with savings groups were
6.5 to 9.5 percentage points more likely
to cope successfully with the shock
(depending on choice of model). However,
significance of the coefficient is marginal
at best and varies with choice of model
covariates.
Poorer households
were 2.7 percentage
points more likely
to have successful
coping strategies
(marginally significant;
not robust for model
with community-level
controls). Household
heads with at least one
year of schooling had
a 9.9 percentage-point
increase in probability of
having successful coping
strategies (p=0.045).
Kaboski, J. P., & Townsend, R. M. (2005). Policies and
impact: An analysis of village-level microfinance
institutions. Journal of the European Economic
Association, 3(1), 1–50. Retrieved from https://doi.
org/10.1162/1542476053295331
Thailand (rural
and semi-urban)
Microfinance institutions
(multiple types). Production
credit groups (PCGs) are less
likely to contain the poorest
in a village but more likely
to consist of mostly women.
PCGs operate like VSLAs;
may receive start-up capital
but are not linked to larger
intermediation network.
Women’s groups overlap in
saving/lending functions with
PCGs but usually also contain
a training/livelihoods element
for example with a focus on
rice banks and buffalo banks.
A “bad year.” Year is
identified through
household self-report—
lowest income year in
last five years (1992–97).
Unclear whether this
represents covariate shock.
Non-random
assignment to
treatment. Cross-
sectional survey of
random selection of
households. Two-
stage least squares
(2SLS) and maximum
likelihood estimation
(MLE) models used to
estimate association of
microfinance institution
with outcome.
Cluster random selection of 192
survey villages, 15 households from
each village (n=2880). Household
survey administered in May 1997
(cross-sectional). 2SLS and MLE
models constructed to measure
association of microfinance
institution with likelihood of
reducing consumption. Multiple
variations of institutions tested; no
correction for multiple hypothesis
testing.
Reduced consumption/input
use: Households were asked
to identify the worst income
year in the past 5 years and
indicate whether they had to
reduce consumption or inputs
for that year.
Households in villages with microfinance
institutions that offered savings services
were 12 to 18 percentage points less
likely to reduce consumption in a bad year
(though significance was not robust to
specific savings service evaluated).
Analyses focusing only on women’s
groups or PCGs (instead of lumping all
microfinance institutions together as the
“treatment”) did not produce significant
differences with regard to consumption
smoothing in a bad year.
Households in villages
with microfinance
institutions that offered
emergency services
were 20 percentage
points less likely to
reduce consumption in a
bad year.
Karlan, D., Savonitto, B., Thuysbaert, B., & Udry,
C. (2017). Impact of savings groups on the lives
of the poor. Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, 114(12), 3079–3084. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611520114
Ghana, Malawi,
Uganda (pooled
RCTs)
Mostly women VSLAs
established by NGOs. Not
linked to outside capital.
Drought (2009–11). Annual
rainfall less than 1 SD below
average for 12 months
before endline survey.
Only a subset of villages
experienced the shock
(none in Ghana).
Cluster RCT.Cluster RCTs (pooled across three
countries). Stratified random
assignment of 561 village clusters
to treatment or control. Households
randomly selected (N=15,221).
Baseline and endline surveys,
studies conducted over a period of
22 to 30 months. Pooled model with
ITT estimates, adjusted for multiple
hypothesis testing.
Food security: Index composed
of five binary indicators,
12-month recall (adult/child
reducing food intake adult/
child going a full day without
food, borrowing food).
Income: Self-reported
revenues minus expenses
for all IGAs carried out by the
household in the 12 months
before the survey.
No significant impacts when adjusting for
multiple hypothesis testing.
Food security: Drought significantly
reduced food security for control
households by 0.119 SD (adjusted p
< 0.05), but there was no significant
difference between treatment and control
households (adjusted p=0.26).
Income: After the drought, treatment
households had, on average, 26.40 USD
more in income than control households,
but statistical significance disappears
when adjusting for multiple hypothesis
testing (p < 0.1; adjusted p=0.26).
No significant
differences between
treatment and control
groups for business
outcomes, asset index,
per capita consumption,
or community
participation index.
Women’s empowerment:
For households not
experiencing a shock,
the treatment group
displayed increases in
women’s empowerment.
However, for households
experiencing drought,
the coefficient on
women’s empowerment
was negative for
treatment households
( 0.119 SD; p < 0.05;
adjusted p=0.26).
Ksoll, C., Lilleør, H. B., Lønborg, J. H., & Rasmussen,
O. D. (2016). Impact of village savings and loan
associations: Evidence from a cluster randomized
trial. Journal of Development Economics, 120, 70–85.
Malawi (northern
rural)
Gender of groups not
specified. VSLAs, no access
to outside capital. Article
stresses that common
VSLA policy is to time the
share-out to periods in which
households are likely the
most resource constrained.
This paper does not
focus on a shock, but one
outcome of interest is
the length of the “hungry
period,” a lean season in
which household members
eat fewer than three
meals per day. Data were
measured in 2009 and
2011; no discussion of how
the hungry period during
this time frame compares
to average.
Cluster RCT.Cluster RCT. 46 villages randomly
assigned (within strata) to either
treatment (NGO-implemented
VSLAs) or wait-list control. Baseline
and endline household surveys
(n=1775 households). 45% of
treatment households participated
in VSLA; 21% of control households
participated in VSLA (spillover).
3% attrition. Outcomes of interest
were assessed with four different
ITT model specifications (mean
difference, lagged, DD, first-
difference). P values corrected for
multiple hypothesis testing. Sample
was balanced at baseline.
Length of hungry period:
How many months in the past
year did household members
eat fewer than three meals
per day?
There was no significant impact on the
length of the hunger period.
The paper examined
the impact of VSLA
participation on a
number of different
outcomes, but none of
the other outcomes was
associated with a shock.
Story, W. T., Tura, H., Rubin, J., Engidawork, B.,
Ahmed, A., Jundi, F., . . . Abrha, T. H. (2020). Social
capital and disaster preparedness in Oromia,
Ethiopia: An evaluation of the “Women Empowered”
approach. Social Science & Medicine, 257,
111907. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.socscimed.2018.08.027
Ethiopia (Oromia)Project Concern
International’s Women
Empowered approach.
Women-led VSL; included
programming on
empowerment and business
skills. Does not appear to
have included linkages to
external capital.
Residents had been
affected by 2015–16
drought (one of the worst
droughts on record).
Study conducted in 2017.
Exposure to past shock
measured as binary
indicator of any loss of
income in last three years
due to a disaster (> 90%
respondents exposed). Also
included binary indicator if
whole household migrated
in search of pasture/water.
Quasi-experimental
(self-selection into
treatment). Cluster
random selection of
sample. T tests and
Poisson regression
used to compare
outcomes between
groups.
Study district contained eight
treatment villages and 19
comparison villages (not randomly
assigned). Random selection of 29
women’s empowerment groups
within eight treatment villages,
followed by random selection
of 10 to 11 women from each
group (self-selection into groups).
In comparison villages, random
selection of 10 villages and 28–30
women from each village. N = 589.
Survey administered in July 2017.
T-tests used to compare treatment
and comparison for preparedness
outcomes. Poisson regression used
to control for shock exposure (and
other covariates).
Whether or not household
had taken actions to prepare
for a disaster: single survey
question; actions included
diversification, insurance,
savings, etc. Binary variable.
Self-perceived preparedness:
Survey asked, “How prepared
would you say you are for a
major natural or man-made
disaster in your community?”
Those who reported “not
prepared at all” were coded
as 0; all other levels of
preparedness were coded as 1.
Preparedness actions: In a model with no
covariates, preparedness actions were
37% more prevalent among women in
the treatment group (p < 0.01). However,
this finding was not significant in
models controlling for social capital and
respondent characteristics.
Self-perceived preparedness: In a
model with no covariates, self-perceived
preparedness was 52% more prevalent
among women in the treatment group
(p < 0.01). However, this finding was not
significant in models controlling for social
capital and respondent characteristics.
The study also examined
the mediating role
of social capital in
disaster preparedness.
Emotional support
may have been an
important mediator in
the relationship between
group membership and
perceived preparedness.
Tol, W. A., Leku, M. R., Lakin, D. P., Carswell, K.,
Augustinavicius, J., Adaku, A., . . . van Ommeren, M.
(2020). Guided self-help to reduce psychological
distress in South Sudanese female refugees in
Uganda: A cluster randomised trial. The Lancet
Global Health, 8(2), e254–e263. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(19)30504-2
Uganda (refugee
settlement in
North)
Refugee women (South
Sudanese) with at least
moderate psychological
distress (many exposed to
high levels of GBV). Women
assigned to groups of 20–30
to receive Self Help Plus
intervention. Facilitator-
guided intervention was
delivered as a group
workshop but also contained
individual components
(meeting with community
health worker). Intervention
consisted of five weekly
workshop sessions.
Conflict in South Sudan
(ongoing; study conducted
in 2017). Female refugee
population with high levels
of post-traumatic stress
disorder from exposure to
GBV and conflict.
Cluster RCT.Fourteen villages randomly assigned
to either treatment or control;
40–60 households randomly
selected within each village. N=694
women. Participants were surveyed
at baseline, immediately after
five-week intervention, and at three-
month follow-up. 10% attrition (not
differential; listwise deletion from
analysis).
Psychological distress: Kessler
six-item scale. Scores ranged
from 0–24. 5 is cutoff for
moderate distress, 13 for
severe.
Psychological distress: K6 scores were
lower, on average, for both treatment
and control groups over time. At week 6
(immediately after intervention), women
in treatment group scored, on average,
3.25 percentage points lower on the K6
than women in control group (p < 0.001).
At three-month follow-up, women in
treatment group scored, on average, 1.20
percentage points lower than women in
control group (p = 0.04).
Subanalysis of women with severe distress
(scores of at least 13 on K6) showed
significant reduction in proportion of
treatment group scoring in the “severe”
category at week six and at three-month
follow-up. Due largely due to fewer women
in treatment group deteriorating than in
the control group.
At three-month follow-
up, treatment was
also associated with
improved outcomes
on post-traumatic
stress and depression
symptoms, explosive
anger, and functional
well-being.
Weingärtner, L., Pichon, F., & Simonet, C. (2017).
How self-help groups strengthen resilience: A
study of Tearfund’s approach to tackling food
insecurity in protracted crises in Ethiopia. Overseas
Development Institute (ODI) Report. Retrieved from
https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-
documents/11625.pdf
Ethiopia (Ofa and
Kindo Koysha)
NGO established SHGs,
broad range of activities that
included savings and loans.
No start-up capital; linkages
to external capital not
apparent for this study site.
Marginalized women were
specific target, but groups
also included men.
Residents had been
affected by 2015–16
drought (one of the worst
droughts on record). Study
conducted in 2017.
Non-random
assignment to
treatment; non-random
selection of sample.
Cross-sectional,
qualitative study.
Non-random selection of study
participants (SHG members and
non-members) from nine study
villages (n=252). Qualitative
interviews and surveys conducted in
2017 (cross-sectional).
Themes of qualitative
interviews included reliance
on predatory lenders, risk
diversification, and shock
resilience.
No quantitative results. Interviews revealed
that SHGs provided a way to avoid
predatory lenders and that SHG members
were better off than non-members in a
drought. Diversification in food-supply
structures seemed to contribute to higher
food security for SHG members. SHG
members were also more likely to store
foodstuffs or accumulate savings.
SHG members appeared
to be more prepared
than non-members for
future shocks.
SHG ability to combat
covariate shock was
limited because
communal resources
were strained; draining
communal resources
during a drought meant
less for productive use
later. SHG membership
is not a replacement for
formal social protection
during a shock.
Wineman, A., Mason, N. M., Ochieng, J., & Kirimi, L.
(2017). Weather extremes and household welfare in
rural Kenya. Food Security, 9(2), 281–300.
Kenya (southern
rural)
Gender not specified.
Membership in savings group
was coded as 1 if any member
of the household belonged to
a savings group.
Rainfall, temperature, and
wind shocks from 2000–07.
Measured as cumulative
days over/under thresholds
(e.g., cumulative wind
speed days over 5 m/s).
Low rainfall was found to
be more consistently severe
than higher rainfall.
Non-random
assignment to savings
group. Longitudinal
panel regression,
with household fixed
effects.
Longitudinal household panel
survey (2000, 2004, 2007) alongside
weather data. Household outcomes
were examined, with participation
in a savings group examined as a
mitigating factor in rainfall deficits
(no random assignment). N=1264
households.
Note. Study design was to measure
effect of weather shock on
household; not designed to identify
impact attributable to savings
group.
Household poverty status:
binary variable indicating
whether household was below
the poverty line for rural Kenya
(income/AE/day ≤ 67 Kenyan
Shilling)
Household income: income per
adult equivalent (AE) per day,
measured in Kenyan shillings
(Ksh).
Membership in a savings group had
a positive but nonsignificant effect on
whether or not a rainfall deficit pushed a
household below the poverty line (-0.07;
p=0.16).
Membership in a savings group was
associated with significantly higher
household income during a rainfall deficit
(coefficients not reported).
Access to credit was also
a significant mitigating
factor, but paper does
not specify group-based
informal credit.
Yaron, G., Wilson, D., Dumble, S., & Murphy, B.
(2017). Measuring changes in household resilience
as a result of BRACED activities in Myanmar. London,
UK: Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate
Extremes and Disasters (BRACED). Retrieved from
https://www.itad.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/
DFID-BRACED_EA3-Impact-Evaluation_Myanmar_
Final_Shared.pdf
MyanmarBRACED implemented
Community Resilience
Assessments (CRAs) that
included VSLAs, trainings,
and infrastructure. Impacts
were estimated for entire
intervention and not
attributable to VSLAs alone.
Study set in multihazard
context. Impact of past
climate shocks was still
felt, and future shocks are
anticipated to grow worse.
Most households reported
exposure to shock in last
10 years at baseline; < 20%
households reported
exposure to shock between
baseline and endline.
Non-random
assignment to
treatment. DD model
to estimate impact of
treatment on outcome.
Stratified random sample of
households in treatment and
comparison communities.
Comparison communities selected
based on geographic proximity and
criteria similar to those of treatment
areas. Baseline (2015) and endline
(2017) household surveys. N=2168,
7% attrition (not different for
treatment or comparison; slightly
different for outcome). Impact on
outcome (composite resilience
index) estimated using DD analysis.
Resilience index: Composite
index of five resilience
dimensions, measured with
30 questions on household
survey. Produced continuous
score between 0–1.
Households in treatment villages realized,
on average, an 18% increase in overall
resilience index scores, while households
in comparison villages realized a 14%
increase (p=0.002).
In a subsample (n=400) of individual
intervention components, VSLAs
showed significant impact on improved
resilience scores in two of eight villages
(nonsignificant results in six of eight).
Female-headed
households and
households with more
assets tended to benefit
more from intervention
(this was not measured
specifically with respect
to experiencing a shock).
No indication that
intervention increased
food security.

The majority of the empirical studies (13 of 20) examined resilience to a weather shock. These weather shocks varied in terms of severity and acuteness, and this review includes evidence of groups providing resilience to seasonal hunger periods as well as to droughts, monsoons, and other climate disasters.

Resilience was most commonly measured using some indicator of consumption, such as changes in food security or household expenditures, and seven studies provided evidence that women’s group member households tended to be better able to smooth consumption during covariate weather shocks than non-member households (Bahadur et al., 2016; BARA & IPA, 2013; Christian et al., 2019; Demont, 2013; Demont, 2022; Garikipati, 2008; Karlan et al., 2017). It is important to note that, while consumption tended to be higher for member households than non-member households, membership in a women’s group seldom fully mitigated the effect of the weather shock. That is, the shock reduced consumption for all households, but member households experienced less of a reduction in consumption than non-member households; their increased absorptive capacity provided the ability to absorb more of the shock before reducing consumption. For example, Demont (2022) surveyed households in India about the number of months in the past year that households had to reduce food consumption, finding that households in villages with women’s groups realized nearly 50% less of a reduction in food security during a rainfall shock (compared to households in villages without women’s groups). Christian et al. (2019) found no significant impact of women’s groups on food consumption in the year after Cyclone Phailin – but did find that households in treatment villages spent significantly more per capita (785 Rs) on non-food consumption after the shock. Women’s group members also tended to have higher household income after weather shocks (Demont, 2022; Karlan et al., 2017; Wineman et al., 2017), as well as better disaster preparedness strategies than non-members – indicative of increased adaptive capacity (Story et al., 2020; Weingärtner et al., 2017; Yaron et al., 2018).

However, two studies using food security and nutrition-related outcomes found no evidence that membership in a women’s group provided benefits during a weather shock. One study examined the length of time households subsisted on less than three meals per day and found no difference between the treatment and control group (Ksoll et al., 2016). The other study found no significant benefit of group membership amongst households when examining child development outcomes several years post-drought (De, 2011).

Three studies in sub-Saharan Africa provide mixed results on the ability of group membership to increase resilience to conflict shocks. Victims of conflict-related sexual violence participating in VSLAs in the DRC realized group benefits of increased food expenditure and decreased internalized stigma, but the study found no statistically significant differences between group members and non-group members for additional mental health and economic outcomes (Bass et al., 2016). Similarly, adolescent girls living in the midst of conflict in South Sudan did not achieve the economic outcomes the group was designed to provide, but they did enroll in school at higher rates post-conflict than non-group adolescents (Buehren et al., 2017). Neither of these two studies focused on groups specifically designed to mitigate the effects of these conflict shocks, but a third study conducted after civil unrest in Uganda measured the effect of interventions with specific mental health programming by newly formed groups and found that women in these group-based interventions had less psychological distress and better mental health than women in the comparison group (Tol et al., 2020).

This review also includes two studies on the importance of access to savings and credit through women’s groups during price shocks, as well as a study of adolescent girls’ groups during the Ebola outbreak (detailed in Section Spotlight on Women’s Groups and Ebola). During a year of high price volatility, members of savings groups in El Salvador were 9.5 percentage points more likely to avoid experiencing hunger than non-member households (Jahns, 2014). Likewise in Thailand, households in villages with microfinance groups were better able to smooth consumption than control villages in periods of widespread economic hardship (Kaboski & Townsend, 2005).

During shocks to income and resources, access to group-based credit is an important mechanism for a household’s absorptive capacity, as credit can help to smooth consumption, reduce asset loss, and allows borrowers to avoid predatory lenders (Weingärtner et al., 2017), especially when credit conditions are flexible (Khandker et al., 2015). However, as described in the previous section, covariate shocks may deplete group resources to the extent that loans are not available to members – especially if the group is not formally linked to a broader network or a financial institution (Demont, 2013; Gash & Gray, 2016). In cases where group-based credit is not available during a covariate shock, the savings and information sharing mechanisms of women’s groups may be paramount (Karlan et al., 2017). The accountability and regular commitment of savings groups ensure that members have greater absorptive capacity through accumulated savings, while access to information networks about crop diversification strategies and labor opportunities allows members to increase their adaptive capacity by smoothing income during shocks (Demont, 2013; Demont, 2022; Karlan et al., 2017). Mechanisms of shifting gender norms, empowerment, and collective action and mobilization may contribute to the transformative resilience of women’s group members during shocks (Gram et al., 2019), which is described in more detail in Section How Do Women’s Groups Support Community Responses to Shocks?.

However, the literature also revealed certain limitations with regard to the ability of women’s groups to contribute to individual resilience during a shock. Women’s groups may not benefit all members equally, and improved resilience for member households does not always equate to improved resilience for the woman herself. There are very few subgroup analyses in the reviewed studies, and we know little about the potential differential impacts of women’s groups on members. Compulsory savings may also reduce the ability of the poorest women to join groups even when this mechanism contributes to increased member resilience. Additionally, Garikipati (2008) and Karlan et al. (2017) find that group-attributable improvements in household resilience may coincide with decreases in women’s empowerment outcomes around household decision-making and control of productive assets. Finally, the most vulnerable women in a community may be excluded from or forced out of groups due to negative perceptions of the poor (Hossain & Rahman, 2018). These findings caution against the idea of interventions with women’s groups as sufficient to equitably support member resilience without addressing structural inequities.

How do women’s groups support community responses to shocks? We found consistent evidence of women’s groups playing a role in the community response to a shock. The literature revealed diverse examples of women’s groups partnering with a broad range of stakeholders to support all stages of responses to various shocks. In particular, women’s groups had the ability to organize and empower women to advocate for more inclusive resilience policies that are better aligned with women’s priorities (Clissold et al., 2020), highlighting their potential role in transformative resilience through systemic change.

Women’s groups have supported multiple stages of community response to a shock: from preparation and disaster risk reduction to immediate response and relief efforts, to reconstruction and recovery, and finally by advocating for transformational change (see Figure 1). This includes both pre-existing women’s groups, which often serve as valuable human infrastructure in the face of a shock, as well as new women’s groups that form to mobilize women to respond to a shock in their community. After large natural disasters in South Asia, women’s groups actively participated to rebuild and rehabilitate their community – by setting up relief camps (Nambiar, 2016), taking charge of large community kitchens for the displaced (Shaji, 2020), holding household cleaning drives after floods (Anandan, 2018), providing psychological counselling to the bereaved (Anandan, 2018), and contributing significant sums of money from their savings toward the rebuilding of their community infrastructure (Anandan, 2018). We found that many types of local organizations that center women, inclusive of small lending groups as well as large, networked advocacy organizations, engage with a broad range of stakeholders in these community efforts, such as forming advocacy coalitions with women’s rights organizations (Fisher, 2009; Fordham et al., 2011), serving as government partners and implementers (Yonder et al., 2005), partnering with local and international NGOs (INGO) (Fordham et al., 2011) and working with multilateral institutions such as the UN (Brickman Raredon, 2011).

0575e0a6-dfe6-4ed1-b7e6-9848cd9f8b3c_figure1.gif

Figure 1. The role of women’s groups in the stages of community response to shocks.

The literature cites several locally relevant communication, implementation, monitoring, and advocacy roles that women’s groups can play in community responses to shocks. Women’s group connections to their communities mean that they “are talented in gathering local information that is difficult, if not impossible for outsiders to access” (Yonder et al., 2005, p. 35). Involving women’s groups in community responses can also increase the cultural relevance of programming, bolstering community trust and leading to an improved response (Camara et al., 2020). In their role as implementers of shock response programming, they can “function as intermediaries between their communities and the government in a manner that improves the speed, quality, and accountability of the government programs” (Yonder et al., 2005, p. 35). They can also support monitoring of a response to a shock – including everything from tracking incidents of gender-based violence in shelters (Fisher, 2009), to outbreak surveillance and reporting (Deepa et al., 2008), to ensuring resources are allocated appropriately to those most in need (Yonder et al., 2005). Finally, grassroots women’s organizations appear to play an important advocacy role in ensuring government and INGO programming best supports women and their communities (Fordham et al., 2011).

However, women’s advocacy organizations, grassroots cooperatives, and federations of savings and credit groups have reported a lack of meaningful involvement in national disaster responses. Across 21 interviews of women’s advocacy organizations in Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Sharan Africa, Oxfam found that the majority felt “sidelined” from disaster response and recovery initiatives due to “perceived lack of technical capacity and reach”, as they “had never been consulted by aid agencies on resilience and disaster preparedness strategies, and had no contact with government and nongovernmental actors in charge of disaster response and recovery initiatives” (Ravon, 2014, p. 17). Other sources corroborate this finding, as Goetz and Jenkins (2016) found multiple instances of the UN excluding women’s groups in the conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes, and Enarson, Fothergill, and Peek (2007) found that women and women’s grassroots organizations are often not in positions of authority during disaster relief and recovery. Gupta and Leung stated that “successful partnerships between grassroots women’s organizations and government agencies… are exceptions rather than the norm” in disaster risk reduction and recovery, and that typical programs such as aid and training too often “reproduce rather than redress women’s marginalization and vulnerabilities” (2011, p. 25).

As a result, these and other authors call for more meaningful partnerships with, and investments in, organizations that work with women, which include community-based small groups such as VLSAs, networks or federations of women’s groups, and NGOs/INGOs that work with women’s networks and women’s rights/advocacy organizations. Experts cite the potential of such partnerships to reduce the perpetuation of gender inequity through building local capacity instead of relying upon external expertise (Gupta & Leung, 2011), and by supporting the ability of local women to be “permanent active agents of resilient development” (Fordham et al., 2011, p. 65). Thus, our findings suggest that there is room for greater inclusion of women’s groups in community, government, and NGO response to shocks – and that increased inclusion has the potential to support community resilience.

Spotlight on women’s groups and Ebola. The Ebola epidemic from 2014–2015 had a catastrophic impact on VSLAs in Liberia, including absenteeism for VSLA meetings and activities, a decrease in contributions and resultant reduced funds available for loans, and–ultimately–the suspension of all VSLA activities (Langlay, 2014). Men who were able to borrow money in Liberia during the crisis mostly did so through informal sources, such as family and friends, while women primarily relied on credit offered by savings clubs and susu clubs, as other formal financial services were suspended (Korkoyah & Wreh, 2015). In Sierra Leone, the burden of the Ebola shock decreased group members’ ability and propensity to contribute savings – which, in turn, put pressure on the group’s social fund, despite it being needed for expenses related to burial and the care of orphaned and vulnerable children (Androsik, 2020). However, while the Ebola epidemic highlighted the vulnerability of women’s savings groups to shocks, it also showed their resilience – as many VSLA group members in Liberia remained steadfast in their commitment to their group throughout the crisis (Langlay, 2014).

Women’s groups adapted their activities, services, and roles in response to Ebola outbreaks in various ways. In Liberia, the financial savings and loan activities of VSLAs were disrupted, but groups naturally evolved to serve as important sources of psychosocial support to members during this period of extreme loss and grief (Langlay, 2014). In response to recurrent conflict and the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, VSLAs experimented with a “resilient VSLA model” to better cope with recurrent shocks that included shorter loan cycles, new emergency funds, and facilitating membership for displaced women (CARE, 2020a). Women’s groups also adapted to play a role in the community response to Ebola in the DRC, where the World Health Organization trained women’s group representatives to spread awareness and share information in 30 Beni neighborhoods about vaccines, contact tracing, treatment, and the vulnerability of women and children to the disease (WHO, 2018).

We found one study that incorporated a causal identification strategy to measure member resilience attributable to group membership during the Ebola outbreak. The study focused on the effectiveness of the Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) intervention using a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Sierra Leone (Bandiera et al., 2019). The Ebola outbreak occurred in the midst of the intervention and varied in severity across intervention locations. Thus, the authors were able to measure the mitigating impact of belonging to an ELA group during Ebola. The study found that group membership decreased the amount of time adolescent girls spent with men, decreased out-of-wedlock pregnancy by 7.5 percentage points, and increased school attendance by 8.5 percentage points. In a follow-up analysis, the positive effects persisted in higher human capital accumulation (increased school enrolment at higher levels of education) over time for group members (Bandiera et al., 2020).

Discussion

Several common themes emerged in our evidence synthesis of the relationship between women’s groups and acute covariate shocks. First, covariate shocks tend to disrupt group activities – either through reducing membership and meetings or by altering group functions to respond to the shock. Widespread shocks also tend to deplete group resources in a time of high need. However, linkages to formal institutions can mitigate the impact of shocks on group resources by extending access to credit beyond the shock-affected resource pool. Studies conducted in India with networked and institutionally linked SHGs were more likely to report positive resilience outcomes due to uninterrupted access to credit, while studies of more autonomous women’s groups tended to describe resource shortages and reliance on savings. Groups may adapt their policies during a shock by introducing more flexibility around contributions and loan repayments; however, the resulting benefits to members may come at the cost of group sustainability. Indeed, there may be a tension between the prioritization of group resilience versus individual resilience that is underexplored in the literature. Groups may also employ technical adaptations to promote resilience during shocks, such as switching to digital technology when in-person meetings are disrupted, but we did not find sufficient evidence of these types of technical adaptations in our review.

The evidence of women’s groups providing resilience to members is limited in quantity and scope but rich in content. Published studies prioritize economic SHGs experiencing weather shocks, but a few articles examine the social support mechanisms of groups amidst the psychological toll of conflict shocks. Results vary according to shock severity, group purpose and structure, and outcome measures, but the evidence is largely supportive of the ability of women’s groups to benefit members during covariate shocks. While evidence on specific mechanisms is limited, the literature suggests that accumulated savings, regular contributions, and flexible credit conditions may contribute to the ability of groups to mitigate the negative economic consequences of shocks for individuals, though with potentially differential consequences across members. However, the lack of subgroup analyses, such as differential impacts on members according to income or caste, is a prominent gap in the current literature.

The literature cites numerous benefits of women’s group involvement in the community response to a shock, but also suggests that women’s groups and advocacy organizations often feel sidelined. Women’s groups can provide valuable local expertise, human infrastructure, and community connections, with the potential to support governments and a variety of private actors in stronger, more sustainable responses to covariate shocks in contexts with wide coverage. Future research could expand upon this point and explore to what extent this engagement places a greater relative burden or risk on women versus to what extent it promotes women’s empowerment and contributes to shifting gender norms in communities.

Conclusions

This review reveals that while women’s groups may provide resilience to members and communities, covariate shocks tend to disrupt group activities and reduce group resources. The findings thus suggest a trade-off between individual or household and group resilience, indicating that groups may require additional financial support to remain sustainable during and in the aftermath of crises. This observation is consistent with the finding that access to formal institutions can mitigate the negative impacts of shocks on group resilience. We found this tension between individual and group resilience during the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, as limited contributions by group members put pressure on the group’s social fund (Androsik, 2020). However, evidence from Liberia shows that group members continued contributing to their group throughout the Ebola crisis, suggesting that the tradeoff between group and individual resilience may not apply in all contexts.

The findings of this evidence review on the ability of group membership to promote resilience are consistent with early findings related to the short-term effects of COVID-19 on women’s groups and their members. Evidence from nationally representative longitudinal panel data based on in-person (before COVID-19) and phone-based (after COVID-19) surveys in Nigeria showed that households with a female member in a savings group experienced smaller increases in food insecurity than households without members (Adegbite et al., 2022). A recent study from Uganda found that membership in savings groups was associated with a lower likelihood of suffering income shocks and a lower likelihood of a reduction in food consumption (Kansiime et al., 2021). A study from India found mixed results, suggesting smaller decreases in consumption after COVID-19 for SHG members compared to non-members but no evidence for statistically significant associations with other economic outcomes (de Hoop et al., 2021). In addition, most women’s group farmers in Kerala, India, were able to get a fair return because they had access to enough intra-group labor to continue harvesting during COVID-19 (Agarwal, 2021). Findings from India further indicate that SHGs faced challenges due to COVID-19 lockdowns, particularly lower mobilization of monthly savings, which may create challenges for group sustainability (Siwach et al., 2023). The study also showed that SHGs in geographies that received disbursements from the government experienced lower reductions in savings than SHGs in geographies without disbursement, which may have supported group resilience. VSLAs in multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa also adapted their programming by introducing digital meetings, changing meeting frequency, and meeting with fewer members at a time after the gradual relaxation of the lockdown (Adegbite et al., 2022). Like women’s groups in Liberia during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, SHG members in India and savings group members across sub-Saharan Africa became involved in the community response to COVID-19 by partnering with government agencies to produce personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitizer, and masks and support vulnerable community members (Adegbite et al., 2022; Government of India, 2020).

While evidence is emerging about the initial implications of COVID-19 for women’s groups (Adegbite et al., 2022; Mulyampiti et al., 2023), the long-term impacts of the pandemic on women’s groups and their members remain unknown. Future research can address this evidence-gap through mixed-methods research, exploring the ways in which women’s group membership may contribute to the long-term resilience of members and assessing the longer-term effects of covariate shocks on group sustainability (paying special attention to the role of external financial assistance to groups).

In the short term, we nonetheless have several take-aways from the evidence synthesis that may inform policy:

  • Sustainable access to financial and other resources, for both women’s groups and their members, is a crucial resilience mechanism to support women’s groups and their members during and in the aftermath of covariate shocks, such as COVID-19. Uninterrupted access to credit with flexible conditions is important for member resilience, and support for women’s groups may include external contributions to group resources, such as cash transfers, to help members’ smooth consumption while normal income generating activities are suspended (Tankha, 2020). For example, the Reserve Bank of India provided an option for one-time restructuring to borrowers in August 2020 in response to the pandemic. This option included SHG loans for which the account was classified as ‘standard’ as of March 1, 2020, and where defaults were not over 30 days. However, reports suggest that by the deadline of 31 December 2020, banks had received restructuring requests for only 2% of the loan book (de Hoop et al., 2021). Policy seeking to bolster resilience will likely need to go beyond the provision of resources for basic needs and instead incorporate a multidimensional approach that includes psychosocial support, access to health information, and protections against the increased risks of gender-based and domestic violence (Tankha, 2020).

  • Meaningful partnerships with women’s groups during a community response to a shock have great potential. Research suggests that including women’s groups in a meaningful way can produce benefits for the community as a whole and, especially where groups exist on a wide scale, for women’s overall resilience to shocks. Qualitative findings from Nigeria indicate that women’s groups may have helped to provide support to members in acute need, connecting women with new income opportunities and contributing to reductions in gender-based violence (Agene & Onyishi, 2020; Mulyampiti et al., 2023). However, evidence from India also shows that women producing masks in response to COVID-19 suffered due to delayed payments for goods procured on credit (Kudumbashree State Mission, 2020), indicating that partnerships with women’s groups during crisis must also ensure risk mitigation and protection for women – such as ensuring timely payment (CARE, 2020b). It also remains critical to ensure social distancing and access to PPE for women leaders and contributors in the response to COVID-19.

  • Policies and adaptations of interventions can have heightened potential for unintended adverse consequences during shocks. Policymakers concerned with equity will need to consider—and monitor—the possibility that the benefits of women’s groups may not be distributed equally among members, and that the most vulnerable may be excluded from or harmed from groups during shocks. For example, the use of digital meetings has created barriers to participation for some of the most marginalized women (Adegbite et al., 2022). Care will also be necessary to ensure that interventions targeted toward women’s groups during shocks are carried out in an empowering way rather than increasing existing gendered burdens or perpetuating gender inequities.

The included studies provide a broad and comprehensive overview of the relationships between women’s groups and covariate shocks. However, as this review was rapid and not fully systematic, we want to acknowledge several limitations. Though we conducted extensive searches of various platforms, it is likely that we missed some of the evidence. Additionally, the research design and methodological rigor of the reviewed studies varied widely, and we did not conduct a risk of bias assessment on the included studies (Hombrados & Waddington, 2012). Due to our broad scope, findings for one women’s group may have limited generalizability to other women’s groups across contexts or population groups (e.g., adolescents and adult women), and comparisons and effect aggregation across studies are challenging due to diverse outcome measurement, shock severity, and group type. In addition, detailed information about each women’s group (including gender composition) was often inconsistently specified. Finally, we were not able to include analyses on COVID-19 and women’s groups during the most recent COVID-19 humanitarian crises in India and Uganda because of the limited availability of evidence during our search timeframe.

Despite these limitations, reviewing the recent historical record on women’s groups and shocks was important to synthesize lessons learned and enable the generation of a broad evidence base on this topic. The review provides meaningful evidence for policymakers and practitioners engaged with women’s groups who aim to strengthen their long-term resilience after COVID-19. It also points to the ongoing importance of studying and documenting the relationship between women’s groups and serious but possibly more localized shocks that do not garner the research attention of COVID-19. When and where these shocks will take place is unpredictable, making rigorous study designs difficult; however, covariate shocks will continue to occur and will most likely disproportionately affect women in some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. A better understanding of women’s groups in the context of shocks may support pre-emptive policy and group action and hasten post-shock responses. Further research can also expand our understanding of how, and under what conditions, joining a group can support individual resilience and contribute to community responses.

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Walcott R, Schmidt C, Kaminsky M et al. Women's groups, covariate shocks, and resilience: An evidence synthesis of past shocks to inform a response to COVID-19 [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]. Gates Open Res 2023, 7:111 (https://doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.14771.1)
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