Savings and Loan use survey and gender impact assessment of Uong Bi Savings and Credit programme

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Introduction

The report examines two issues related to the running of the savings and credit Programme assisted by ActionAid in Uong Bi District of QuangNinh Province. The first part looks at savings and loan use among the fledgling groups in the three communities where the programme has been put into place. The second part assesses the impact of targeting the financial services to women, taken that the intention behind this aspect of project design has been to improve both their status within the community and to promote the even distribution of programme benefits to household members.

The research found that savings and loan use differs among the communes, however, some strong general patterns have emerged through combining field research with computer data analysis: the poorest members in the two plains communes are more attached to loans services than savings facilities. Other, better-off members borrow to invest in livestock or education. There appears to be some hesitance to take loans at interest. Overall the members seem to be unfamiliar with savings facilities when joining the scheme, but have a number of ways of accessing forms of credit to address seasonal shortages and needs for investment and agricultural inputs. The financial services of ActionAid add to, but do not replace all of these strategies.

The gender impact assessment found that women in the three communes have a high degree of control over household finances, therefore, extending savings and credit facilities to female groups does not threaten accepted gender roles. However, the degree of control of women over household finance appears to depend on their husbands’ employment so that if a members’ husband works away from the farm, she may have less control over the incoming revenues, but more control, in his absence over how the household budget will be spent.