The impact of savings-led microfinance on the lives of refugees

Stephen DeLoach and Alexa Rasmussen

Journal of Development Effectiveness, 2025, vol. 17, issue 2, 231-256

Abstract: In 2016, the United Nations changed the focus of refugee policies from one of humanitarian aid to one focused on economic development and self-reliance. In this paper, we analyse the impact of savings-led microfinance on South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. Due to non-randomisation, we implement doubly robust, difference-in-difference estimation. Results suggest that refugee members of a popular village savings and loan programme significantly increase their savings and borrowing relative to non-member refugees, and experience significant improvements in several key indicators, including food security, home improvement, and income-generating assets. After participation, refugees are better positioned to preserve assets in response to future unexpected and infrequent expenditures. Key mechanisms may include improved financial access and socially proximate peer monitoring. The results suggest that finding ways to better-leverage group affinity and build social cohesion could increase the effectiveness of similar programmes aimed at helping refugees.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/19439342.2024.2428672 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jdevef:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:231-256

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RJDE20

DOI: 10.1080/19439342.2024.2428672

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Effectiveness is currently edited by Howard White

More articles in Journal of Development Effectiveness from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().