RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

Socioeconomic Profile Findings
Average household savings vary by WFP Priority Zone. The highest average savings are
found in the Coastal area of Bhola, where households have been able to save Taka 6471 on
average, but households living in the Char zone only save only Taka 2934 on average.
Table 24: Average Household Savings by Vulnerability Categories
Vulnerability Non-vulnerable 2 3 Most Vulnerable Totals
Mean Taka
Std Deviation
8204.97 3291.09 1557.40 1346.70 3709.28
13438.69 7074.78 2982.68 1983.38 8328.68
As one would expect, non-vulnerable households save significantly more than do households
in the other socioeconomic classes. The figures in Table 24 (as well as Table 23 & 25) do
not include 25 households (outliers), the most non-vulnerable households in the sample, who
have been able to save between Taka 80,000 and Taka 800,000. Even after excluding these
25 relatively well-to-do households, non-vulnerable households are able to save more than
six times the amounts of the vulnerable households in the sample.
Female-headed households have been able to save substantially more than their male-headed
counterparts (4626 Taka vs. 3664 Taka). Savings are strongly related to membership in
NGOs or Grameen, with which female-headed households are likely to have longer-term
memberships, which largely explains the higher savings levels.
Table 25: Average household Savings by Type of Household Head
Household Head Female HH Head Male HH Head Totals
Mean Taka 4626.05 3663.90 3692.16
Std Deviation 10101.10 8200.97 8271.12
Nearly two-thirds of the households (64 percent) reported that they would not be able to
access their saving during times of need. Approximately one-third of the households who
reported taking a loan from their micro-credit organizations explained that the organization
might have used their savings as collateral. Approximately one-quarter of the households
mentioned that the MFIs with which they are attached do not allow the households to access
savings, even in times of their severe need. More than one-quarter of the households keep
their savings in the form of longer-term deposits, which also cannot be accessed. Sixteen
percent of households mentioned that withdrawing savings is only allowed at the time of
withdrawing membership from the organization. The Pearson correlation results suggest that
household membership in NGOs or Grameen in the study area is negatively related to
accessibility to saving in times of need. Given the frequent hazards of floods and other
natural disasters as well as unnatural shocks that compel poor households to engage in
various coping strategies, the inability to access savings in times of need appears to be a
highly regressive aspect of NGO savings programmes.
3.2 CREDIT
Less than half of all households in WFP priority regions have at least one outstanding loan.
Most of the loans appear to have been taken by middle socioeconomic households. Only a
little more that one-third of invisible poor households and 39 percent of non-vulnerable
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