Can financial service providers (FSPs) effectively link savings groups of poor rural women to formal savings (SG) accounts via a mobile phone platform? Can this be done while protecting and even enhancing the value of maintaining membership in a savings group? This paper presents the experience of two Freedom from Hunger’s FSP partners in Burkina Faso: Le Réseau des Caisses Populaires du Burkina (RCPB) and La Société pour le Financement de la Petite Entreprise (SOFIPE). Both FSPs integrated the formation of savings groups as part of their rural outreach strategy and analyzed their members’ experiences during the project with regard to participation, financial capability and Client Protection principles.

A sample of group members was randomly selected by each FSP; the sample was surveyed at the beginning of the project (baseline) and towards the end of the project (endline) and the changes were analyzed.

The study reveals that:

• The average length of time in a savings group increased from 1.5 months to 17.4 months showing more stability in groups membership;
• The percentage of food-insecure members increased slightly in RCPB’s groups, but decreased significantly in SOFIPE’s (from 51% to 37%). This could be due to the difference in the time of the year that the surveys were conducted and in the locations of FSPs; • Based on the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), the rates of those living below the national poverty line are lower for RCPB and SOFIPE’s respondents than the national average by about 15-20 percent;
• For both organizations, the savings groups financial linkage did not involve any sort of pressure on the savings group members to take out loans; also group cohesion was maintained during the financial linkage process. While the two FSPs show an increase in the amount of weekly savings, SOFIPE’s groups show a slower increase than RCPB’s;
• The majority of the savings group members have access to a phone and demonstrated confidence in using them. Very few, however, had individual Mobile Money accounts. SOFIPE members showed increased access to loans at formal financial institutions.