About the report
We have called this report Beyond the Box because the impact of a Village Savings & Loan Association (VSLA) far extends beyond simply learning to save. By joining a VSLA, a woman can improve multiple areas of her life including educating her children, increasing her income, improving her access to healthcare, engaging in collective action, and so much more. The savings box is just the beginning of her journey towards resilience.
Women in savings groups have faced multiple crises, from COVID to natural disasters to conflict. Understanding their urgent needs and responding to their priorities will be central to our programming. Over the coming years we will double down our efforts to develop CARE programs in response to community need, responding and adapting to VSLA member needs at every step.
As we reflect on the first four years of the VSLA scaling strategy, our anticipated routes to scale are on track. On the next page you will see how CARE has reached evermore VSLA members globally, including through third party scaling. This shows us that our Scaling Strategy is focused on the most impactful routes to reaching 62 million VSLA members by 2030. Since the launch of this strategy, we have doubled the membership in VSLAs globally.
Our strategy includes working with governments to scale far beyond our own capacities, deepening our impact through existing CARE programming, improving the sustainability of both VSLAs and the supply chains in which they operate alongside our corporate partners, and by identifying how to bridge our humanitarian work with long-term recovery.
As we look to the year ahead, we will be laser focused on quality and impact. We need to collectively build on the foundations of VSLAs by layering interventions, such as joint decision-making dialogues, microenterprise training or collective investment – to ensure that the savings in the box are invested in the growth (economic, social, and personal) of VSLA members, their families, and communities. Our goal is to open pathways of prosperity for millions of people in VSLAs, supporting them to achieve their own ambitions.