CARE aims to reach 30 million people in Africa by 2019

By Naagesh Naaraayana

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 18, 2009: Over the next 10 years, CARE plans to provide basic financial services for 30 million of Africa’s poorest people in 39 countries, and at least 70 percent of them will be women.

CARE, a humanitarian organisation with its Access Africa program on village savings and loans, is empowering the poor women in Africa to work their way out of poverty. Its next goal is to reach 39 countries across Africa and help microfinance institutions in capacity building to develop and deliver the products and services these clients need.
Its recent report also highlights the best practices from five successful mcrofinance institutions in Africa. They know their clients – the poor in urban slums or in hard-to-reach rural areas – and have tailored their operations to reach them where they live and offer the most appropriate services. They reach their clients by public buses in South Africa, motor scooters in Togo and banks-on-wheels in Mozambique. They offer loans geared to the needs and production cycles of farmers, and they require their loan clients to save, it said.
The training of clients is key to the success of microfinance and in the end, a successful microfinance institution must achieve the “double bottom-line” – economic growth without compromising their core mission of serving poor clients, the report said.
CARE, which released its report last week, has listed its programs like the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) and said they are giving poor women the means and confidence to build more prosperous futures for themselves and their families.
“Nearly four decades of global microfinance experience have shown us that when poor people – primarily women – have access to basic financial services, they can change their lives and build stronger communities,” said Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE. “When women make an income, they typically spend it on improving the education, nutrition and health of their families – creating a multiple effect that can lift entire communities out of poverty.”
CARE VSLAs are built by women living on less than $2 a day who collectively save pennies each week and make small loans to each other to support new business ventures, such as farming, jewelry making or beer-brewing. Because members borrow from each other, there is a low default rate on loans – and much lower interest rates than the 95-100% that can be charged by traditional moneylenders.
CARE’s VSLA approach is part of its larger Access Africa program that aims to bring financial services to 30 million people in 39 African countries over the next 10 years – at least 70 percent of people served will be women.
According to Lauren Hendricks, Executive Director of Access Africa, “CARE has pioneered a microfinance methodology that has worked with more than 1.2 million people around the world. It is exciting to think of the monumental and sustainable change that will take place when we reach 30 million of the poorest people in Africa.”
Founded in 1945, CARE reaches poor women in 66 countries with financial services.

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• Exclusive Interview with Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE
• CARE Celebrates the Introduction of the GROWTH Act in U.S. House of Representatives
• Banking on Change – Barclay’s 5.5cr microfinance programme
• Regulatory policies, individual initiatives determine financial inclusion: Report
• Bill & Melinda Gates foundation grants $38M to top microfinance organisations
• Remittances help microfinance survive: IFAD
• Microfinance News Synopsis: Barclays launches microfinance partnership with Plan and Care in Ghana
• Exclusive Interview with Lauren Hendricks, Executive Director of CARE’s Access Africa

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