icon icon icon icon icon icon icon

CARE Welcomes Michelle Obama, Laura Bush to African First Ladies Summit in Tanzania

© George W. Bush Institute
© George W. Bush Institute

DAR ES SALAAM (July 2, 2013) – The global poverty-fighting organization CARE welcomed first lady Michelle Obama, former first lady Laura Bush and other dignitaries to the African First Ladies Summit in Tanzania. Held in Dar es Salaam today and Wednesday, the Bush Institute’s “Investing in Women: Strengthening Africa” Summit highlights successful practices that have helped women in Africa achieve economic self-sufficiency.

“We’ve seen that when women have the knowledge and skills to sell what they produce, they spend their earnings on food, health care and school for their children,” says Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Global Coordinator for CARE’s Women in Agriculture program. On Tuesday, Mrs. Bush and eleven African first ladies, including Mrs. Janet Museveni of Uganda and Mrs. Roman Tesfaye of Ethiopia, attended a panel that Njuki moderated. Panel members discussed innovative strategies that give women farmers access to consumer markets, improved farming techniques, and technologies that increase yield.

Earlier in the day, participants attended a session with both Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Obama on the role of first ladies.

In 2010, CARE started a program called Pathways that helps women farmers lead the way to improvements in food security. “Its goal is to empower women and increase harvests,” says Njuki. “We’re now working with close to 150,000 women smallholder farmers in six countries, four of which are in Africa.”

CARE’s Village Savings and Loan Associations offer women a secure opportunity to save money and make loans to each other to start small businesses or pay vital household expenses such as school fees for their children. Women use their small loans to raise poultry, make soap, grow vegetables, and earn income in other ways. More than 500,000 people in Tanzania have benefited from the associations, which help more than 3 million people in 26 African countries.

“We’ve seen entrepreneurial women take the lead in growing and selling vegetables and then turn their families’ financial situation completely around,” says Njuki.

“Thanks to programs that encourage entrepreneurship, millions of hardworking women have been able to feed their families and keep them healthy,” says Njuki. “We’re proud that the first ladies learned about those achievements and we look forward to their support.”

Media Contacts:

Atlanta: Laura Sheahen, CARE, lsheahen@care.org, +1.404.667.8299

Resources

VSLAs Adapt to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading, and the situation is changing quickly in many countries around the world. This brief covers what VSLA groups are doing differently to meet the COVID-19 crisis.

Read More

Unlocking Access, Unleashing Potential (French version)

Débloquer l'Accès, Libérer le Potentiel. Autonomisation de 50 millions de femmes et de filles par le biais d’associations villageoises d...

Read More

Working with Savings Groups During COVID 19 (French)

Un outil de CARE sur comment travailler avec les groupements d'epargne et credit dans le context de COVID 19

Read More

CARE COVID-19 Guidelines for Savings Groups

Savings groups are one of the most consistent and sustainable platforms for community programming across many sectors and contexts. COVID-19 poses crucial health and economic risks for Savings Groups as markets falter, mobility is restricted, and community gatherings are restrained.

Read More

Pennies to Power: VSLA Scaling Strategy

Read about CARE's scaling strategy to go from 7.6 million savings group members in 2019 to 50 million more by 2030.

Read More

CARE Ethiopia Decade of Learning: VSLA/VESA

One of CARE’s innovative and transformative approaches, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), harnesses the ancient practice of...

Read More

Unlocking Access, Unleashing Potential

Launched in 2018, the VSLA Scaling strategy is a bold initiative to scale CARE’s VSLAs to reach 50 Million women and girls by 2030.

Read More

Victory Over Poverty

A Village Economic and Savings Association discusses finance, borrowing and saving in Ethiopia.

Read More

CARE’s SDG Impact

CARE’s 2020 program strategy aims to help tackle the underlying causes of poverty and social injustice, as part of global efforts to...

Read More

SPIR: VESA Learning Brief

Read More

SPIR: Youth Businesses

This 4 page brief shows how young people are using loans from VESAs to start their own businesses.

Read More

SPIR: Access to MFIs

Access to finance is a major barrier for farmers in Ethiopia, especially PSNP4 beneficiaries who are part of the USAID-funded SPIR...

Read More

SPIR Youth Skill Development Toolkit

This 114 page manual highlights the SPIR project's approach to youth skill building and employability

Read More

SPIR Youth VESA Learning Brief

The “Youth” VESA is a new program piloted by SPIR which brings together the children of PSNP4 households as a self-selected group of...

Read More

SPIR VESA Brief

VESAs are groups of 15-25 households, brought together as a foundation for all economic and social activities.

Read More

SPIR project brief

2 page summary highlighting the USAID/Food For Peace funded SPIR program.

Read More

Women on the Move: Annual Impact Report FY 18

This report highlights the impact of the Women on the Move project, which theorizes that if a critical mass of women’s groups, in particular savings groups, are part of an interconnected social movement, and if women and girls have greater power to influence unequal social and economic norms, then women and girls will experience positive change in their socio-economic status and be able to influence change at all levels.

Read More

She Feeds the World

This 42-page document showcases She Feeds the World, CARE's strategic program framework for Food and Nutrition Security.

Read More

GRAD learning brief: Linking Community Savings Groups to Microfinance

This 2 page brief highlights lessons learned on connecting Village Economic and Social Associations to Microfinance institutions in...

Read More

GRAD Learning Brief: Financial Products

This 6 page breif highlights GRAD's experiences with helping families accees formal financing from Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) in...

Read More

GRAD Learning Brief: Outstanding Loans

This 2 page brief highlights the experience of the GRAD program working to get households in rural Ethiopia who have outstanding loans...

Read More

Village, Savings, and Loans Associations: A Case Study – Ghana

Read More

CARE Briefing Paper to the UN HLP Working Group

Read More

VSLA – 25 Years

Read More

Groups Change the World: How Collectives Empower Women

Want to get to empower women?

Read More

GRAD Learning Brief: Loan Guarantee Funds

This two page brief highlights learning from the USAID-funded GRAD programs experiences with Loan Guarantee funds to get financial...

Read More

CARE Int Tufaidike Wote Project Brief

Read More

Livelihood & Food Security Technical Assistance (LIFT) II

There are an estimated 1.5 million people living with HIV in Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with prevalence rates of nearly 11% and 1%, respectively. Through the Livelihoods and Food Security Technical Assistance II (LIFT II) project, CARE works to expand access to economic opportunities for people living with HIV and their families, and in doing so helps to improve food security and financial status, so that they are able to obtain life-saving healthcare.

Read More

CARE Accenture Financial Inclusion Report

“Within Reach: How banks can grow profitably by being more inclusive”

Read More

TESFA: Improving The Live of Adolescent Girls in Ethiopia

This 16 page evaluation showcases the final results of the groundbreaking program designed and implemented by CARE Ethiopia and and evaluated by the International Center for Research on Women. The program, named Towards Economic and Sexual Reproductive Health Outcomes for Adolescent Girls, or TESFA, impacted the lives of 5,000 child brides.

Read More

Journeys of Transformation: A Training Manual

This 88-page manual describes CARE's work in Rwanda on engaging men as allies in women's economic empowerment.

Read More

Banking on Change: Breaking the Barriers to Financial Inclusion

Read More

Innovative Financing Helps Women Solar Entrepreneurs in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania

Women are engaged to be sellers and distributors of clean cook stoves and solar lanterns/lamps in an project called “wPOWER.”

Read More

CARE International Switzerland – Sudan Marhaba Newsletter 9.13

Read More

Micro-savings: Pathway to Financial Opportunities for Women

Read More

Mind the Gap

Exploring Gender Dynamics of CARE Rwanda’s Village Savings and Loan Programming

Read More

Access Africa Briefing Notes

Financial Linkages: Bridging the Formal and Informal Sectors

Read More

Analysis of the ISHAKA Experience

Read More

Kenya: Linking the Cash Box to the Bank – Formal Banking of Savings Groups Through Mobile Money

Read More

ISHAKA Toolkit

A Guide to Girls’ Economic and Social Empowerment Through a Solidarity Group Savings and Loan Platform

Read More

How the World’s Most Influential Change Agents Mobilize for Action

By Bill Clinton

Read More

VSLA as a Platform for Integrated Programming

The Integration of Social Analysis and Action into SAFI

Read More

Access Africa State of the Sector Report: Closing the Gap

This review focuses on the potential for the savings-led microfinance (MF) movement in sub-Saharan Africa to close an important gap in...

Read More

Access Africa: The Power of Financial Services Program Update – May 2011

Securing capital to start a business or accruing savings is a near impossible task for millions of people in the developing world.

Read More

Pathway to Empowerment: Overview

Our plan is called PATHWAY TO EMPOWERMENT because it’s a journey forward, together.

Read More

Bringing Financial Services to Africa’s Poor

“Bringing Financial Services to Africa’s Poor” focuses on microfinance, a tool that’s been proven effective against poverty in the...

Read More

Access Africa: Equal Access to Financial Services

When poor people have access to financial services – secure savings, credit, insurance and other products – they can lift themselves out...

Read More

Connecting the World’s Poorest People to the Global Economy

The importance of expanding access to financial services for the world’s poorest people is increasingly recognized.

Read More

Economic Development Overview

CARE’s programs in Economic Development work to improve the economic security and income opportunities of the poor.

Read More

CARE Haiti: Economic Development

Sustainable Economic Development programs are part of CARE Haiti's Relief to Reconstruction strategy.

Read More
Back to Top