Impact of COVID 19 on the Participation of Rural Women in Savings Groups: Case of Umzingwane District in Zimbabwe

The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of COVID 19 on women in savings groups in rural Zimbabwe using Umzingwane district as a case study. The study adopted a sequential explanatory research design with the view of using mixed research approach. Data was gathered using questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires were administered to 300 female savings group members and interviews administered to 40 committee members of savings groups in ward 3, 4, 5 and 14 of Umzingwane district in Zimbabwe. The study revealed that the COVID 19 pandemic reduced the ability of the savings groups members to generate income leading to low contributions, poor loan repayments and low levels of emergency funds. The study through Chi Square test found that there was a relationship between the marital status of female savings groups members and their ability to make regular contributions, with mainly married female members being able to make regular contributions. Chi Square test also revealed that ownership of a smartphone was not related to the ability of female savings groups members to regularly attend group meetings. The study also revealed that the measures that were adopted by savings group to ensure that female savings groups members continued to participate in savings groups were loan rescheduling, use of Whatsapp platform as a means of conducting meetings, acceptance of mobile money payments to collect contributions and loan repayments and assigning committee members to visit group members so as to collect contributions and repayments and to check on the members who were always absent. The study recommends that savings groups members should be taught to have diversified sources of income so as to be resilient to the effects of disasters such as COVID 19. The government and development agencies should link savings groups to formal banking so as to have access to diverse financial services which will make them resilient to the effects of disasters.