Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-167) and index.

Guiding principles for saving for change -- A group meeting -- Dependency is not empowering -- Getting started with Saving for Change -- The most productive asset of all : empowering friends and neighbors -- How do we know it works? -- Applying savings groups principles to other development initiatives.

Jeffrey Ashe draws on his ... career in international development and his personal experience helping to build savings groups to explain how this simple and powerful approach works. As this book shows, the poor are not too poor to save, there is enough savings potential within a group of twenty to meet most needs, and very small sums can make a big difference. Savings groups are as convenient as meeting under a mango tree in the village, and they are as flexible as the rules group that members design for themselves. They build on existing resources while avoiding the subsidies, debt, dependency, and high costs of other approaches, including microlending. This model has the potential to revolutionize development programs in many other areas, including health, agriculture, education, and even grassroots political empowerment. Being organized gives us courage, as one saver said. It is their courage translated into action that explains the success of this in their own hands approach to development.

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