The Village Savings and Loans Association pathway – feminist solidarity groups leverage COVID-19 to have their voices heard

Abstract

abstract This article profiles the Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) model as a platform and foundation for women to raise their voices and collectively advocate for change. It examines how women in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria leveraged feminist solidarity through VSLAs to advocate for, support, and establish women’s leadership in crisis. CARE, working hand in hand with rural women in Niger, gave birth to the VSLA model in 1991 to serve as a model for women’s empowerment, public participation, and gender transformation. VSLAs have served as a powerful launch pad for individual and collective feminist advocacy. At a foundational level, members of VSLAs benefit from improved livelihoods and social and financial safety nets in times of distress. From a community perspective, VSLAs ignite feminist solidarity which has sparked collective action such as the building of schools, holding of local government officials to account, and influencing leaders to change the practice of early marriage and devaluing of girls’ education. In 2020, during the global COVID-19 pandemic, VSLA women-led solidarity groups became a tool of effective action for expanded leadership and feminist political advocacy. This collective feminist advocacy was motivated by a leadership void created by the pandemic and a lack of policies that actively and effectively safeguarded women. This article examines the power of this collective voice and advocacy. It further examines the lessons that can be learned from the transformation of VSLAs as a source of social safety nets and economic power to a catalyst for collective voice and feminist advocacy.