STiR coffee and tea magazine

22 STiR coffee and tea | 2024 Issue 5 (October / November) T By Diana Jendoubi Savings Groups Are Saving Coffee here are about a billion unbanked women around the world with no access to finance. A lack of financial knowledge and access prevents women in coffee-producing countries from actively participating in the coffee value chain and inhibits them from contributing to important deci- sions on the farm and in the household. However, that gender gap is slowly being bridged by small groups of women banding together and exercising the power of savings and loans. The beginning of the 1990s marked a turning point in global aid. The United Nations and World Bank released studies showing that when financial aid was put into the hands of women, those assets were more likely to be held onto and spent cautiously on items such as food, healthcare, and housing. While serving as the Chief Economist for the World Bank, Larry Summers wrote, "Investment in girls' education may well be the highest-return invest- ment available in the developing world." Private aid groups, charities, and foundations started proclaiming slogans such as "Women are the key to ending hunger in Africa" and focusing on programs that addressed gender inequality. In 1991, the venerable humanitar- ian organization CARE initiated a project developed by Moira Eknes to help women in Niger form Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA). More than 30 years later, those humble VSLAs have reached more than 20 million people worldwide and are now strengthening industries such as coffee that depend on the success of smallholder farmers. Trust and Solidarity: The Fundamentals of a VSLA VSLAs are small groups of 10-25 people (predom- inantly women) organized in rural areas or even urban centers where people have little to no ac- cess to traditional financial institutions. They offer basic financial support and services, workshops, and classes on various beneficial topics, such as digital finance, gender equality, sustainable farm- ing methods, nutrition, family care, and current market values. Women in particular benefit tremendously from VSLAs that provide gender equality training. Studies have shown that women and communities Thuong Binh VSLA group meeting: the group was established in late 2021 with 25 local women farmers in Thuong Binh village, a remote and mountainous residential community in Ha Giang, Vietnam. Photo courtesy Trang NK/CARE Sorting coffee beans at an Ara-Tay Coffee Cooperative processing facility in Son La, Vietnam. Photo courtesy Laura Noel/CARE

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