While many banks and microfinance institutions provide valuable services to the poor in the developing world, they are most successful in economically dynamic urban or peri-urban areas.

30 years since the start of the microfinance revolution, poor people who live in many rural areas and urban slums still find it difficult to access appropriate microfinance products, even in countries with a well developed microfinance sector.

Village Savings and Loan Associations based in the community are complementary to MFIs tending to serve the very poor whose income is less reliable, but also offering useful services to the economically secure.

This manual provides a concise guide to how to set up and run a village savings and loan association and is based on over 15 years of research and development experience.

Hugh Allen

Mark Staehle
Mark Staehle is Enterprise Advisor, Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP), a rural development programme of DFID Bangladesh. Prior to joining CLP, Mark was advisor to SafeSave and serves on the board of directors.

Scripting development through formalization: accounting for the diffusion of village savings and loans associations in Tanzania

Green, Maia

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 25 (2019), Iss. 1 P.103

https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12966 [Citations: 6]

A Congolese–US participatory action research partnership to rebuild the lives of rape survivors and their families in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Glass, Nancy

Ramazani, Paul

Tosha, Mafille

Mpanano, Mitima

Cinyabuguma, Matthias

Global Public Health, Vol. 7 (2012), Iss. 2 P.184

https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2011.594449 [Citations: 23]

Evaluation of the impact of Village Savings and Loan Associations using a novel survey instrument

Brannen, Conner

Sheehan-Connor, Damien

Development Southern Africa, Vol. 33 (2016), Iss. 4 P.502

https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2016.1179097 [Citations: 4]

Does group inclusion hurt financial inclusion? Evidence from ultra-poor members of Ugandan savings groups

Burlando, Alfredo

Canidio, Andrea

Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 128 (2017), Iss. P.24

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.05.001 [Citations: 22]