Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) have been a foundational programmatic approach at CARE since 1991. Since then, CARE has helped over 13.7 million people join savings groups. The savings group model has been adopted and adapted by a variety of organizations globally. This brief gives an overview of the social and financial effects and returns of savings groups as well as how groups affected members’ resilience to COVID-19. The results gave an overview of the financial return on investment (ROI), group economic outcomes, savings groups costs, and individual and household effects for savings groups both inside and outside of CARE.
A CARE multi-country study analyzing government-supported community health worker programs in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Nigeria and the United States using the CHW Assessment and Improvement Matrix (AIM) found that insufficient funding of these programs affects remuneration and other incentives for community health workers but also leads to inadequate resources for training, data collection, and equipment and supplies. This negatively impacts community health workers’ motivation, retention, and recognition and, in general, poses major barriers to achieving Universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. Governments must step their support and investment in community health workers, properly integrate them into health systems and ensure a broader enabling environment for them to unleash their full potential. Read More
Increases in global conflict, the economic impact of COVID-19, market inflation, and the growing effects of climate change are compounding global crises. Those crises disproportionately affect the most vulnerable communities, especially women and girls. Addressing the unprecedented and overwhelming humanitarian crisis requires response and recovery efforts to listen to and address the needs of those affected the most, especially women and girls. Read More