Voluntary Replication

The technical unit and partner NGOs engaged in their own backward dance, gradually expanding the role of the anima­tor from “trainer of groups” to “trainer of trainers.” In our vision, volunteer replicating agents would take on the bulk of the work of organizing new groups.

Unfortunately, spontaneous replication, though impor­tant, proved both insufficient and inefficient. Groups would often form, but they would be poorly organized, missing key elements of the structure that had been so carefully designed to ensure transparency, participation, and ownership by all members. We felt too that the rate of replication was low compared with what we had hoped for and what we would need to reach our desired scale. Animators, we learned, some­times stopped volunteers from forming new groups because they were not sure whether they should be encouraging repli­cation. The animators who did encourage volunteers to train new groups did so on an ad hoc basis, but their roles were confused—who did what? Should volunteers just teach from memory based on how their own groups work, could they perhaps shadow an animator while she trains and copy her process, or were they supposed to receive specific guidance?

We were encountering the tension between maintain­ing a high-quality program with clear structures in place to ensure effectiveness, accountability, and transparency and our desire to leave it all in the hands of the group mem­bers.

By closely observing the group replication activity already underway, we designed a system to move from laissez-faire, spontaneous replication to the “replicating agent model,” dis­covering that we could vastly increase the number of groups trained in the process. Working closely with Freedom from Hunger, we simplified the Saving for Change manual even further, cutting text until it was almost entirely a set of sim­ple pictures that illustrated each step in training a group. Our intent was that someone with low or no literacy skills, once trained on this manual, would have the tools to facilitate the participatory, discussion-based training sessions we felt were essential to creating member-managed savings groups.

Next, we adjusted the animator’s role in introducing Sav­ing for Change to a village. Animators would train the first group and then move on after identifying one or two smart, energetic women who wanted to take on the replicating agent (RA) role in their village. By working at the same time in twenty or more villages in an area, animators could train many RAs at once. The adventurous women willing to join a village’s very first group would provide a good source of ambitious local volunteers who would then train more groups in their own villages. When the animator eventually pulled out to form groups in a new region, the RAs would continue the work independently. The endgame was geographical sat­uration —every village in a geographic area would have a Sav­ing for Change group.⁴⁰ This would help ensure that even the poorest or most marginalized households in a village would be able to participate in Saving for Change.

Animator Basenji Coulibaly explained how he chose RAs from the women with whom he worked. “My criteria are that when I go to a village, I start working with a group. I try to notice and identify women who are open-minded and ded­icated to the work, and whom the other women listen to. When I notice someone like that, I go to her and propose to her to become an RA. If she agrees, we go to her husband to seek his agreement before moving forward. After that, when everyone agrees (the lady and her husband), then we go ahead and I explain and teach how to create a group. ‘What are the rules? What are the steps?’”⁴¹

Another animator, Lamine Coulibaly, reflected on the dif­ferences between paid animators and voluntary RAs. “Maybe the RA is more advantageous because she is in the village. The fact that she’s always in the village [means] she knows the realities in the village She is living within the community so she knows the problems, speaks the same language, and speaks about the same things, so communication is better between them.”⁴²

A volunteer replicating agent, Fatoumata Bagayoga, ex­plained the value of her work:

I told them about the roles of officers and that they have to put these [positions] in place in order to become operational. I explained how they save, how they give loans, how fines and repayment are done. I talked to them about all these rules so they could understand....

Before people understood how it worked, it was chal­lenging. I do this training even if I’m busy with my own household work. I still do the trainings. It is important to me because of how people will consider me in the village—other people will see it is me who is doing this important role in my village

There were some women in the village who didn’t know anything about selling things or petty trading. But when Saving for Change came, and some women started small businesses, these women learned from them. The health situation of the people has also improved because it made money available to buy healthcare. This was not possible in the past because you could not get money from anybody to pay for healthcare. Another thing is if you have a child who is in school, and you have problems regarding school fees, you can borrow some money from the group and solve this problem

I take loans from my group to buy rice, cook it, and sell it. Also I use part of the money to buy and sell shoes. I was doing this before Saving for Change. Before Saving for Change, the quantity of rice was 3 kg, but now I can buy 10-15 kg to cook and sell. Before Saving for Change, I sold 19,000 CFA worth of shoes, but now I do 50,000 CFA. Before Saving for Change, I managed with the little amount of money I could get from agriculture. It was not enough money, I was really barely managing. I bought some sheep with my share- out —five sheep for myself.⁴³