We have the world’s largest owned and operated global pipeline of social enterprises
In 30 years, CARE has successfully spun out 30 Social Enterprises. Among the social enterprises created, nurtured and spun out by CARE are Edyficar, a Peruvian microbank sold for $90 million; MicroVest, a microfinance and SME bank with over $300 million in assets; and SEAF, a small business bank with over $600 million in assets.
Books For All promotes education and literacy in Haiti by providing affordable access to French books and reading materials. By selling donated books locally and at affordable prices, Books For All is increasing the number of young people interested in reading and writing, enriching Haiti and Haitian literature.
Books for All has reached nearly 700 mini-libraries and over 109,000 people in 4 years, many of them living in Port-au-Prince on less than $5 per day. Adhering to CARE’s global business model for Local Language Content and Learning, Books For All’s emphasis on accessibility to educational information can help break the cycle of poverty by creating opportunities for self-learning and self-development, and can bridge educational gaps. Books For All is aiming to reach more people in rural populations through local partners to provide educational opportunities for communities who lack access to these resources.
CARE’s Community Score Card© (CSC) is a citizen-driven accountability approach for public services. The Community Score Card (CSC) is a user-driven accountability measure for the assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery. CSC exercises bring together service users and service providers to identify the underlying obstacles to effective service delivery, and then develop a shared action plan for their improvement by conducting due diligence on investment or project activities and providing feedback to enhance decision making.
It enables community members, health providers, and government officials to work together to identify and overcome health coverage quality and equity obstacles. The approach is simple, can be adapted for varied contexts, and can systematically pinpoint and address the specific challenges women face in health services. In the process it delivers changed more responsive services and greater accountability leading to better service outcomes.
CARE Malawi pioneered the CSC methodology in 2002, and since then, it has become an internationally recognized social accountability tool, spreading within CARE and beyond. CARE now has over a decade of experience implementing CSC across a range of sectors, including health, food security, water and sanitation, education, and governance, and in countries such as Cambodia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Egypt, providing over 500,000 community members a voice in local and national policies by bringing them together with government officials to improve services such as health care and education.
The Cooperative Fund supports cooperative development in the Republic of Georgia through giving easy access to finances and technical assistance to agricultural cooperatives, helping break the cycle of poverty through an economically viable system of cooperation.
Just like in other parts of the world, rural poverty in Georgia is widespread, and many agricultural cooperatives lack financial resources and technical knowledge to grow and adapt to climate and market changes which are not addressed by any financial institution, while loans are difficult to obtain and farmers don’t have access to relevant market information or innovation solutions.
The Cooperative Fund assists cooperatives to become self-reliant and independent businesses by providing low interest rate loans to its member agricultural cooperatives, helping smallholder farmers’ gain access to much needed credit, transforming subsistence farms into commercial businesses, increasing cooperatives’ access to information and knowledge, and supporting the cooperatives to become social actors and change agents in their communities. The fund focuses on financial welfare of its members, rather than gaining profit, and aims to empower the cooperatives as decision-makers and leaders in their communities to voice the needs and rights of the most vulnerable populations.
Chomoka is a mobile application used by VSLAs to manage their records, access banking services, and gain support from facilitators. The application allows for accurate record keeping as groups record transactions directly in their smartphone. A marketplace built into the application allows groups and individual members to access formal financial services – including savings accounts, credit and insurance products from partner banks – while leveraging their financial records and credit scores.
Chomoka aims to reach one million users across Africa by 2022, and will create a wealth of data that could enhance the understanding of informal markets by banks, governments and facilitating agencies to more effectively serve this population.
JITA is a social enterprise that empowers rural communities through income opportunities, market inclusion and access to essential goods. In rural Bangladesh, over 40M are living at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BoP), with a large portion of the rural population underrepresented and disenfranchised from the market.
JITA’s platform supports potential rural entrepreneurs and BoP consumers through a sustainable market systems approach, including providing income opportunities for entrepreneurs, supplying quality essential commodities (health, hygiene and nutrition), and supporting market activations, research, and partnerships to test new initiatives for partners who want to understand and engage in the dynamics of the rural BoP markets.
JITA’s innovative hub-and-spoke system mobilizes community resources to fill market gaps, while the Rural Last Mile Distribution model empowers micro-distributors (JITA Hubs) and female door-to-door sales agents called “Aparajita” (Bengali for ‘women who do not accept defeat’), as entrepreneurs. JITA has a strong presence across Bangladesh, with 450+ hubs in 51 districts and 200+ active Aparajita’s, helping over 3000 women develop business and entrepreneurial skills and over 17 million BoP customers gain access to quality essential products.
Operating since 2001 in Timor Leste, Lafaek launched 4 magazines in partnership with the Government of Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Government of New Zealand’s Aid Program (NZAP) and more recently with support through the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT): Lafaek Ki’ik, Lafaek Prima, Lafaek ba Manorin, and Lafaek ba Komunidade.
The magazines are groundbreaking children’s magazines. designed for children in pre-school to primary school, that are the first publications with a truly national reach in the Tetum language, a language that unifies the linguistically-diverse Timorese nation, supporting a sense of national identity and culture, critical in nation-building. In partnership with LBK reaches an estimated 46% of the rural households (approximately 95,000 households).
Made up of a strong team of Timorese artists, writers, layout specialists, managers to oversee production, field officers, Timorese team of CARE staff, drivers and logistics support to manage the complex process of nationwide distribution, the Lafaek magazines reach in total approximately 60% of Timor-Leste’s entire population throughout the country. Cumulatively the magazines have an unparalleled reach throughout Timor-Leste compared to any other media or communication sources. The goals of Lafaek Online are aligned to the larger Lafaek project, aiming to educate, inform and engage young people in important, topical issues, through the medium of the internet.
Living Blue is a cooperative project that grew over recent years out of a traditional CARE economic development program in rural communities in Rangpur division of northwest Bangladesh.
This area has one of the lowest per capita income and lowest literacy rate in the country. Households here lack income diversity and are heavily dependent on subsistence farming.
CARE, upon seeing the talent of local women for weaving high-quality textiles and the motivation of farmers harvesting indigo in the area, helped these marginalized people to work together and develop their entrepreneurial spirit and business themselves, while continuing to provide technical assistance to nurture their skills and build market linkages to support the sale of their beautiful, eco-friendly and innovative handmade pieces.
Quilting products, colored with organic dye extracted from locally cultivated indigo leaves, include scarfs, stoles, shawls, home textiles and hand bags. They also sell indigo dye in powder form directly to customers and provide indigo dyeing services to clients. Living Blue has provided jobs and extra income to 240 artisans and 3,000 indigo farmers.
Live Well Social Business Limited is a for-profit social enterprise incorporated and registered in Zambia. Its aim is to establish sustainable operations that will reliably provide access to affordable, quality health products and supplement livelihoods for underserved Zambians.
Live Well aims to become financially sustainable while maintaining a clear focus on delivering social impact to underserved rural and peri-urban communities it targets and the entrepreneurs it works with. The social enterprise is part of the CARE International network and aligned with the Ministry of Health in Zambia. Live Well with partner support, has developed a business model that empowers communities as entrepreneurs to generate social impact.
If you are interested in learning more about our portfolio companies, please email zubaida.bai@care.org.