A qualitative analysis of savings and internal lending communities in Haiti – do they make a difference?

ABSTRACT

In 2013, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Haiti commissioned an external qualitative assessment of a four-year Savings and Internal Lending Community (SILC) activity funded by USAID that had recently ended. USAID wanted to know whether SILC met members’ needs; had an impact on individual, child and household well-being; whether SILC groups continued after donor support ended, and why or why not. Using a purposive sample of high- and low-performing groups, in-depth interviews were conducted with SILC members and programme implementers including community mobilizers (CMs) and programme staff. Focus group discussions were conducted with SILC members. Interviews and discussions were conducted in Creole, translated verbatim into English and analysed in Atlas-TI. Respondents reported that SILC group activities met members’ needs; members used loans and share-out funds for business investments, school fees, health-related expenses, household consumption of purchasing land or livestock; and that SILC groups differed from other financial institutions due to lower interest rates, sense of ownership of funds, and community solidarity and collective action. Many groups remained active and new groups were created after donor support ended. Other groups disbanded when stipends for CMs ceased, due to lack of engagement from CMs, reduced group member motivation and/or the economic situation. The key factor ensuring success and sustainability seemed to be groups’ sense of ownership of their capital and of the SILC methodology. This assessment produced important findings that can be used to adapt current savings and lending group programming and inform future programming within Haiti and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Household economic strengthening
• savings and lending groups
• Haiti
• evaluation
• qualitative
• sustainability

Acknowledgements

The research team would like to first thank USAID/Haiti for their continued support and guidance of the research team throughout the study. We also thank the HIVCore management team, Ms. Sarah Sandison, Ms. Alison Thurston and Dr. Glenn Post for their commitment and support as well as the USG OVC Technical Working Group for their inputs and insights. Special thanks go to Mr. Jason Wolfe, who provided valuable technical insight throughout the study.

The CRS Haiti team including Mr. Jeffery McIntosh, Mr. William Martin, Ms. Jocelyn Braddock, Mr. Bruce Lee, Mr. Lam Huynh and Mr. Edno Estigene were generous with their time and shared their wealth of experience on household economic strengthening programmes in Haiti with the research team and participated fully in the assessment. Mr. Tom Shaw also provided excellent feedback on the assessment findings.

This study would not have been possible without the dedication and diligence of the staff and data collectors, including Dr. Louis Herns Marcelin, Chancellor, and Mr. Frantzy Lejeune, data collection coordinator, from the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED) in Port au Prince, Haiti.

The Population Council HIVCore staff provided tremendous support for this assessment, including Dr. Sam Kalibala, Ms. Nrupa Jani and Ms. Adaku Ejiogu. We would like to particularly thank Ms. Sherry Hutchinson for her helpful guidance on all things related to knowledge management.

We would also like to acknowledge the Palladium team, including Dr. Irit Sinai, Ms. Abir Doumit, Mr. Albert Merkel and Mr. Shahzad Bhatti, and particularly Ms. Kathleen Walsh, for her vital support during the implementation of this assessment.

Finally, we sincerely thank all of the participants in this assessment including the SILC group members, CBO staff, community mobilizers and CRS CHAMP staff for their openness and motivation in helping to produce important evidence on household economic strengthening programmes.

Disclosure statement

Dr. Olbeg Desinor is an employee of USAID/Haiti, which both funded CHAMP and the HIVCore study described in this manuscript. The opinions expressed are of the authors alone and do not reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government. The other authors have no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This study was made possible through support provided by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) via HIVCore, a Task Order funded by USAID under the Project SEARCH indefinite quantity contract [Contract No. AID-OAA-TO-11-00060].