Project: Costs & Benefits of Savings for Transformation Investments

Savings for Transformation (S4T) is a sustainable livelihoods program that provides traditionally underserved communities access to basic financial services (savings, loans, and grants) through savings groups. Limestone Analytics was contracted to conduct an economic analysis of World Vision Canada’s S4T program model to estimate the program’s cost, benefits, and overall impact from the society’s perspective.

Limestone’s analysis builds on our innovative models of household financial inclusion, savings, and expenditure to estimate the benefits from consumption smoothing, savings, and investment within S4T communities. The model (summarized here) adopts state-of-the-art modeling techniques to estimate the value associated with access to savings by calculating the equivalent cash transfer needed to increase well-being by as much as the participation in the savings group does.

Limestone estimated the costs and benefits of 78 S4T implementations across 21 countries between 2019 and 2021. The analysis showed how the ability to smooth consumption (manage through economic shocks) substantially benefits participants, adding greatly to the program’s overall impact compared to analysis that focused on S4T’s impact on investment, income, and economic growth without considering the consumption smoothing channel.

Limestone’s report synthesizes its analysis, estimating that WVC-funded investments in S4T reached more than 171,000 participants, yielding a net social return of approximately $39 million (USD) or more than $5 in social benefits for every $1 invested.

World Vision Canada has published the results of this analysis on its website. Selected findings from the analysis are also highlighted in World Vision Canada’s 2023 Annual Results Report.