Family Chama For Alternative Empowerment And Socio-Economic Development

This paper examines the alternative development approach that has been established as people centred, participatory and endogenous, with cultural identity playing an important role. The Rotating Savings and Credit Associations have grown and developed over time and across the developing world as an alternative platform for credit and savings for a majority of marginalised people. This paper explores the family centred Rotating Savings and Credit Associations in Kenya as one example of a development approach that is an alternative to mainstream development that is promoting economic well-being and social welfare to individuals. Carried out in Nairobi County in Kenya, the study employed in-depth interviews which were analysed through thematic coding directed by the research questions. The results show that culture does play a significant role in the operations of a family chama and that this social institution has been essential in meeting social welfare needs while significantly interacting with the formal financial sector and promoting economic wellbeing among its members. It concludes by offering some recommendations to financial institutions and to the government on policy considerations relating to social welfare and socio economic empowerment. It is hoped that this study will also encourage development practitioners to inculcate alternative development approaches in their methodologies and theories of change.