Peer-reviewed article

Pathways: how caregiver savings group participation supports child wellbeing

Diana Duff Rutherford, Befikadu Ejeta · 24 Mar 2020

Abstract

Children in Ethiopia are faced with crippling economic conditions aggravated by lack of access to basic services. Household economic strengthening initiatives, such as savings groups (SG), seek to enable poor households to improve their livelihoods and mitigate vulnerability. This study unpacks the mechanisms between SG participation by caregivers of highly vulnerable children and children’s wellbeing with a focus on education, nutrition, health, and happiness. From the perspectives of caregivers and adolescents, the study contributes to a slim body of evidence on how SGs facilitate vulnerable children’s wellbeing. In-depth interviews conducted with 48 SG participants and 33 adolescents yielded descriptive pathways of how SGs affected the household, caregiver and children. We find that caregivers and adolescents tell similar stories, linking wellbeing with livelihoods, though adolescents also link wellbeing with SG training and raising caregiver awareness. This study yields rich information on how SG participation opens and/or smooths pathways to better economic and non-economic wellbeing for participants and their children, supporting SGs as a means to facilitate child wellbeing.