CARE has found that VSLAs meet the need for savings and credit at the very bottom rung of the world’s economic ladder. They create a platform from which the poor can advance to receive the more sophisticated financial services that they inevitably need as their resources, skills and confidence grow. The next step, therefore, is the linking of VSLAs to microfinance institutions and banks so that the poorest people in Africa can have access to all of the financial services that can help them improve their lives. To take this next step, in 2008 CARE launched an ambitious.
