Adapting and extending the use of accumulating savings and credit associations through village savings and loan associations: The case of Care International in Malawi

Adapting and extending the use of accumulating savings and credit associations through village savings and loan associations: The case of Care International in Malawi

2010

Southern Africa

Malawi

This study will ascertain how Care International in Malawi (CIM) has adapted the accumulating savings and credit association (ASCA) model of mobilizing savings to serve the needs of the poorest people in Malawi. CIM is helping poor people to establish village savings and loan associations (VS & LAs) which operate on the same principles as ASCAs, but which are specifically designed for those whose incomes are lower, who live on less than $1 a day, and who need to be guided and trained on how to run their associations. The study will also investigate how CIM has devised the VS & LA model, how it has disseminated it, the successes and setbacks that it is experiencing, and how people are interpreting it and using or not using it.

Chinyamata Chipeta

Professor Chinyamata Chipeta, a Malawian national, has a PhD degree in economics obtained from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, in 1976. Until he retired in 1995, he was a professor of economics at Chancellor College, University of Malawi. Currently, he is the Executive Director of the Southern African Institute for Economic Research, an independent non-profit research institution based in Zomba, Malawi. Among other subjects, he has researched and published articles on commodity and modern fiat money and on informal, micro and formal finance.