FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG – A majority working in the shadows 7.3.3 Group support for members in case of crisis Social security coverage includes the provision of financial support to people who are unable to obtain an income. Tra­ditional social insurance schemes and institutions are, most of the time, confined to workers in the formal economy. Persons in informal employment, who are excluded from such schemes, must find alternative ways of sharing risks through collective action and mutual help. This is reflected in Figure 7.8. – On average, 61.6 per cent of all groups support their members in case of an emergency. This share is nearly double the share of members who reported social services as the primary reason for joining a group. This means that many groups provide social assistance even if their primary purpose is a different one. The average of 61.6 per cent, however, masks considerable differences: in Kenya, four-fifths(81.5 per cent) of all groups assist members in case of an emergency, whereas in Senegal this share drops to just one-third(32.7 per cent). – While on average, 60.8 per cent of all religious groups provide assistance to members in case of an emergency, this proportion drops to just a quarter(26.3 per cent) in Senegal. Further research would be warranted to better understand the reasons for this considerable difference. 7.3.4 Satisfaction with group performance Are members satisfied with the performance of their groups? This aspect was measured through six indicators, related to the usefulness of group services, their timely delivery, the honesty and competence of group leaders, and the ap­propriacy of member fees. 6 Figure 7.9 shows that, across all countries and indicators, a large majority of members expressed satisfaction with their group’s performance. This may not be surprising because(a) membership of groups is voluntary, meaning that unhappy members would simply leave; and(b) group leaders are elected democratically(in most cases at least), so that underperforming leaders would not be re- elected. In all six countries, over 80 per cent of all respondents were satisfied, if not very satisfied with the performance of their groups. An equally high share(86.8 per cent on average) of respondents expressed satisfaction with the timeliness of services rendered by their groups. An even higher proportion(90 per cent) of interviewees thought of their group leaders as being competent, while 89.4 per cent were convinced of their honesty. If we look at the Big Four, some slight variations occur. Religious groups across all six countries were considered by the respondents to be most effective(over 95 per cent answered»satisfied« or»very satisfied«), while cooperatives scored about 10 percentage points less than the religious groups. This notwithstanding, we can still conclude, with a few exceptions, groups meet their members’ expectations. 7.4 IMPACT OF SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FEATURES In addition to exploring functional differences between groups and the reasons motivating individuals to join them the survey also assessed socio-demographic and socio-eco­nomic variables, such as age, gender, education, employment status and income. For reasons of concision, we provide only an overview of these variables, except in cases where signif­icant variations exist. Figure 7.8 Group assistance to members in case of an emergency 0% 20% 6 Data for this last criterion(membership fees) are not available for ­Ethiopia. ­40% 60% 80% 100% Cooperative Savings club Religious group Neighbourhood group national average(all groups) Senegal Zambia Kenya Benin 63.9% 68.4% 60.8% 56.9% Côte d’Ivoire 61.6% Ethiopia 6-country average 66