In 1991, CARE staff and women in rural Niger collaborated to create the first-ever Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA). Since then, CARE has helped 19.4 million women, men and youth form VSLAs around the world. The simple, low-risk VSLA methodology guides members to use their pooled savings to make financial gains and achieve financial inclusion. The benefits go beyond financial gains. Women around the globe have used their VSLAs as a platform to achieve social and political inclusion, as well as establish gender-transformative change.
In the three-plus decades that CARE has helped to implement VSLAs, our ways of introducing the methodology, and the contents of the VSLA training curriculum, have evolved and diverged. We recognized the need to harmonize implementation by creating a standard manual that encompasses global best VSLA practices, and optimal training sequence and content.
CARE has now created a manual to guide Community-Based Trainers (CBT) and others as they mobilize communities; form VSLAs; and train, mentor, and support VSLA members to attain their financial, personal, and social goals.