Women's Livelihood Workshops: Final Report
Closing report on a completed programme, including what happened to the savings groups after WHD funding ended.
This is the closing report for a programme that ran for twenty-two months and concluded in November 2025.
Design
310 women completed vocational training in tailoring, catering, or soap and cosmetics production. Each cohort was paired with a seed grant and enrolled in a cooperative savings group that met fortnightly.
Outcome
The savings groups proved to be the durable element. Follow-up visits after the close of funding found the majority of participants still trading, and the cooperative groups meeting without WHD facilitation.
Participants who received training and a grant but did not join a savings group showed markedly weaker persistence — the clearest single finding of the programme.
Recommendation
Future livelihood work should treat the savings group as the primary intervention and the training as the entry point, rather than the reverse. The 2026 design has been revised accordingly.
