Chapter 4: Enhancing Women's Empowerment through Savings Groups

Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (UNDP, 2019) is essential. This is because women deserve to be treated equally and because empowered women are able to reinforce economic gains by contributing to the overall development of their families and societies (Panetta, 2018). Societies must use all human capital optimally. Women, young and old, are part of society's human capital. In the words of Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, ‘societies cannot afford to lose out on the skills, ideas and perspectives of half of humanity to realize the promise of a more prosperous and human-centric future that well-governed innovation and technology can bring’ (World Economic Forum, 2018). Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large (Demirgüç-Kunt, 2018).