Reports & Resources

Village Savings and Loan Associations Annual Report 2020

April 21, 2021

In 2018 we launched our Village Savings & Loan Associations (VSLA) scaling strategy, with the target of reaching 50 million women and girls (62 million people) in countries with the highest rates of gender inequality and economic disparity, by 2030. Little did we know that we would be faced with a global pandemic that would have a catastrophic impact across multiple dimensions of women’s lives, deepening gender inequalities.

Case Study: Mobilizing Village Savings and Loan Associations for Health Facility Maintenance

July 8, 2019

This brief describes the process of engaging facility management committees in village loans and savings as a tool for health facility improvements. This work is under Sustaining Health Facility Improvement Project under the USAID -funded Advancing Partners and Communities award, on which CARE was a sub-recipient to advance social accountability and engagement between communities and health management for sustainable results.

Strategic Impact Inquiry: Village Savings and Loan

September 12, 2014

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

June 12, 2017

Savings and Solidarity in Crisis: CARE’s VSLA in Emergencies Pilots

May 17, 2022

Globally an estimated 1.1 billion women, nearly one in three, are excluded from the formal financial system. This is particularly true in humanitarian crises. The Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model with its focus on establishing low cost, self-administered informal financial services - with the ability to link to formal financial institutions where available - has the potential to help address this gap and lay a foundation for future economic recovery. Since 2019, CARE has been working through our VSLA in Emergencies (VSLAiE) approach to increase sectoral learning on how to successfully implement VSLAs in some of the most challenging crisis affected settings.

GRAD learning brief: Linking Community Savings Groups to Microfinance

April 19, 2018

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

DRC, Micro-Savings and Survivors of Violence

September 12, 2014

Village savings and loans groups within a holistic socio-economic approach to helping survivors of sexual and other forms of gender...

Takunda building resilience through VSLAs and training for Youth

November 3, 2023

Stories captured from the Ngonya and Gombakomba Village, Mutare District regarding the impact of Takunda on the lives of the marginalized in Zimbabwe through Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA) and capacity building training for the youth for income-generation.

Strengthening resilience through cereal banks: A reflection from USAID-HAMZARI

June 21, 2023

USAID-HAMZARI led support activity for Mata Masu Dubara (MMD), the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA), through the cereal banks thus contributing to the empowerment of underprivileged women and the strengthening of food security in local communities. Cereal banks allow vulnerable farmers not to buy cereals at higher prices during the lean season and not to have to sell their stocks at low prices during the harvest to meet their cash needs.

VSLA by the Numbers

November 1, 2022

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.