By: Dianne Calvi, President & CEO of Village Enterprise; Avnish Gungadurdoss, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Instiglio; and Jeff McManus, Senior Economist at IDinsight.

Part one of this series on results-based funding was originally published by the Center for Effective Philanthropy on February 14, 2023.

The world, and the international development sector, are facing more uncertainty and volatility than it has in living memory. This state of ongoing fragility — stemming from the pandemic, climate change, the war in Ukraine, and related humanitarian emergencies — appears to be the new normal. At the same time, the economic fallout from these crises is putting pressure on aid budgets, and progress on reducing poverty has come to a halt, according to recent data from the World Bank. How should the international development sector adapt, and specifically, how should funders ensure program effectiveness in this new context of volatility and budget constraints?

As leaders at organizations that have been involved in results-based funding from different vantage points — design and management (Instiglio), evaluation (IDinsight), and as an implementer and co-designer (Village Enterprise) — we believe funding based on results offers an opportunity to do more with less. Yet, the approach needs to be adapted for this new, less predictable context.

In part one of this two-part post, we put forth recommendations on adapting results-based funding for crisis and uncertainty. These recommendations come down to a couple of basic principles: first, recognizing crisis is inherently risky, be sure to carefully balance risk and reward to service providers. Second, expect the unexpected by having emergency funding available and preparing to verify results remotely. In part two, we discuss what should not be lost along the way as funders and their partners adapt results-based funding models. But first, we address the underlying need for adaptation.

To read the full article, visit the Center for Effective Philanthropy by clicking here.

The Future of Results-Based Funding, Part Two: What to Keep

By: Dianne Calvi, President & CEO of Village Enterprise; Avnish Gungadurdoss, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Instiglio; and Jeff McManus, Senior Economist at IDinsight.

Part two of this series on results-based funding was originally published by the Center for Effective Philanthropy on February 21, 2023.

In part one of this post, we shared two key principles for funders to keep in mind as they adapt results-based funding models to the volatile and rapidly shifting “new normal” of international development funding. These insights are based on the authors’ own experiences with results-based funding from various vantage points. If you haven’t yet read that post, we suggest you start there.

However, even as the need for adaptation is clear, we believe users of these models should be sure to retain three critical elements that not only work, but work well in a crisis: flexibility, accountability, and rigorous measurement.

In making adaptations and getting creative with results-based funding, it’s critical that projects not lose sight of crucial elements that make results-based funding instruments effective vehicles for social impact. For one, results-based funding commits funders and implementers to participant welfare and ensures it is at the heart of the problem-solving process as stakeholders navigate and adapt to the crisis. Second, implementers need the flexibility to chart their course when plans change. Last but not least, rigorous measurement is the only way to know whether a program is making an impact in a context where everyone may be negatively impacted, making it particularly critical in a volatile context. We explain these points in more detail below.

To read the full article, visit the Center for Effective Philanthropy by clicking here.

The post The Future of Results-Based Funding appeared first on Village Enterprise.

When violence and hunger force people to leave their homes in search of stability and safety, their skills travel with them. Refugees are more than the circumstances they find themselves in—they are people like anyone else with the determination to provide for their families and the power to strengthen local economies.

That’s why Mercy Corps and Village Enterprise are teaming up. Together, we combine two evidence-based approaches in a program called DREAMS (Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems). This innovative partnership provides comprehensive support for refugees and people with lower incomes on their journeys out of poverty and into business ownership.

Through this multi-phased program, DREAMS participants engage in workshops and training sessions with Village Enterprise, learning how to establish, promote, and expand a business. Then, Mercy Corps provides the support needed to help business owners find success—and help local economies flourish.

Mercy Corps helps by identifying profitable opportunities and connecting entrepreneurs to local markets, so their new businesses are better able to run more efficiently and expand.

In October, Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna and a small group of Mercy Corps leaders and board members had the opportunity to visit the DREAMS program in Uganda, meet participants, and hear firsthand about the impact we are helping to spark.

Thanks to the tremendous support of the ICONIQ Impact community and other funders, we are building a foundation to prove the power of the DREAMS model in refugee camps—one of the world’s most challenging contexts—and to scale it to reach others living in extreme poverty. With its success, DREAMS brings the humanitarian and private sectors into lockstep to support millions of people globally in moving from survival mode to self-reliance.

The photos below celebrate the close of the first year of this transformational five-year program. Meet a few of the people taking part in our first cohort in Uganda and learn how DREAMS is a new model to create lasting change for communities around the world.

Laying the groundwork: A fund for entrepreneurs

In our first year of DREAMS, 1,200 households enrolled in the first cohort in Bidi Bidi, Uganda. In these Business Savings Groups, participants join roughly 30 other aspiring entrepreneurs from their community. Together, they grow their business skills and learn how to save and provide loans to each other—a network that is foundational to the success of the budding business owners.

In total, 40 groups have been established in the first year of the program. Festo (pictured above) serves as his group’s vice chairperson, helping to organize the group and track their assets. He’s also a business owner himself, having partnered with two of his fellow group members to start selling silver fish at the local market.

Ready, set, launch: New businesses take off

After 10 weeks of training from our DREAMS Business Mentors, the members of the savings groups have what they need to get their businesses off the ground. They know how to save and loan together, how to identify high-potential business opportunities, and how to operationalize a successful business.

To help entrepreneurs like Festo succeed, Mercy Corps conducted two market assessments to identify high-opportunity value chains and onboarded four private sector investors and distributors. In the coming months, we will connect DREAMS business owners directly with buyers and sellers to ensure their businesses have every chance to thrive into the future.

Festo and his silver fish business are just one story from the DREAMS program. Out of our first cohort, 400 businesses were launched with the support of ongoing mentorship and seed capital grants.

Okukuru: Raising chickens

At Bidi Bidi, Okukuru’s biggest concerns used to be feeding her children and paying their school fees. After joining her Business Savings Group in the local host community and receiving mentorship, her worries started to fade. Through DREAMS she and her group have been supported with poultry feed and Kuroiler chicks—an improved breed of scavenging chicken.

“This business has changed my life. I know how to manage the finances,” Okukuru says. With enough money to save and buy basic goods like saucepans and school uniforms for her children and sister, Okukuru recommends the DREAMS program to her friends and neighbors. “I encourage people to join savings groups and acquire knowledge from those groups.”

Juan Betty: Selling home goods

Another business owner, Juan Betty, is a refugee from South Sudan who works alongside her partners to sell basic home products in her community. She says the mentorship and support she’s received have changed her life for the better.

 

“The program has brought unity in our community, since we all work together as one.”

– Juan Betty, Bidi Bidi, Uganda

Juan Betty is not only the sole provider for her family, she also has a chronic illness. With her earnings, she can buy medicine for herself and everyone in her home can eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And if her business continues to grow, her group will receive additional financial support.

Rose: Growing sesame

Reflecting on her life in South Sudan, Rose says she was well off—a business owner who was forced to leave her home to keep her family safe from harm. Now, Rose is rebuilding her life with the help of her Business Savings Group.

When a DREAMS mentor suggested growing sesame as a good opportunity to build a business, she and her neighbor set to work on securing funding from their group and planting their crops. Rose looks forward to harvesting the three and a half acres of sesame, saying “The rains have been good, and we foresee a good reap. After this harvest, I don’t think I will be the same!”

A bold, new model for lasting change

The DREAMS program supports refugees and crisis-affected communities as they unlock their futures—improving their income and well-being significantly and sustainably. Connected to opportunity, funding, and skills, communities of people are better able to start businesses and power their local economies.

The design of the DREAMS program is a culmination of the partnership between Village Enterprise and Mercy Corps. Learn more about our pilot program through a story about Rashid, a Sudanese refugee living in Rhino Camp, Uganda, who attended one of our training sessions.

Our teams are committed to creating lasting, positive change for the world we share. Not only is DREAMS on course to assist thousands of people in Uganda and Ethiopia, but it forges a new path out of poverty that can be used again and again by local and international development agencies around the world.

DREAMS is a finalist for the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award. Learn more.

The post Year one of DREAMS: A new model for building opportunity appeared first on Village Enterprise.

If you would like to learn more about all that was accomplished, as well as a look at the past five years, check out our recently published Five-Year Report.

Village Enterprise’s Top 10 Highlights from 2022

Transformed Over 205,000 Lives

We’re proud to report that 2022 saw our biggest impact to date—we trained 34,300 first-time entrepreneurs and launched 11,430 businesses, helping to transform the lives of over 205,000 women, men, and children and putting them on a sustainable pathway out of extreme poverty.

Built Resilience and Created Long-Term Impact

Our Five-Year Longitudinal Study found that both household consumption and savings continued to increase for our entrepreneurs after the end of our program. In fact, we saw an 83% increase in consumption and a 933% increase in savings over five years, and 88% of the entrepreneurs reported the skills they learned helped them cope with the economic shocks of Covid-19. These results point to our entrepreneurs’ increased ability to adapt to crises and global shocks upon graduating from our program. 

Demonstrated the Power of Results-Based Funding

The Village Enterprise Development Impact Bond (DIB) exceeded its targets, sustainably improving the livelihoods of 95,000 women, men, and children and generating $5 of new income for every dollar invested.  The very first-of-its-kind for poverty alleviation in Africa, the DIB was studied in an randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted by IDinsight that showcased cost-effective, sustained impact in income and asset increases for over 14,000 households, and IDinsight projected an increase in lifetime household income of over $21 million. 

Drove Climate Resilience and Empowered Female Farmers

Funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency, and in partnership with UN Women and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Village Enterprise continued working on the Women Economic Empowerment through Climate-Smart Agriculture Project in West Pokot, Kenya. This project—which layers our program with additional education around climate-smart agriculture—equips entrepreneurs (80% female) with the tools and resources to launch climate-smart agribusinesses. By learning techniques to improve agricultural outputs in a changing farming environment, our entrepreneurs, such as Selina, are becoming more resilient to the effects of climate change.  

Protected the Environment and Endangered Species

In the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in Congo-Brazzaville and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Village Enterprise and the Wildlife Conservation Society teamed up to end extreme poverty and protect our planet. By equipping those living in extreme poverty near protected areas with the tools and resources to start sustainable businesses, our program reduced poaching and protected endangered wildlife—such as gorillas and okapis—by creating alternative ways to generate income which don’t rely on harming protected species or areas. 

Combatted Acute Child Malnutrition

In partnership with Catholic Relief Services and funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, Nawiri aimed to reduce the chronic rates of acute child malnutrition in northern Kenya in 2022. By layering our poverty graduation model with education on health, nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as providing mobile cash transfers for participants to purchase immediate medical care and nutrient-dense food, Nawiri is addressing the underlying issues driving acute child malnutrition and providing sustainable pathways out of extreme poverty. In early 2022, after seeing positive results in the early stages of implementation, USAID committed to significantly scaling up the program. By September 30, 2023, Nawiri will have reached 14,310 households, impacting 85,860 women, children, and men in northern Kenya.

Partnered with African Governments to Scale Our Impact  

In Kenya, we worked alongside the national government to enhance their social protection program and build the capacity of government officials to create a stronger social safety net for the future as part of the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP). Additionally, in Rwanda, we began co-designing a poverty graduation and climate resilience outcomes project with the government which will transform at least 360,000 lives in the first three years. The project will then be iterated, replicated, and scaled by the government with the goal of ending extreme poverty in Rwanda by 2030.

Launched DREAMS for Refugees

In partnership with Mercy Corps, we officially launched DREAMS (Delivering Resilient Enterprises and Market Systems) in Uganda. A winner of the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award for Refugees and funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the IKEA Foundation, this first-of-its-kind model merges Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program with Mercy Corps’ expertise in market systems development to equip refugees with the skills, resources, and markets to start sustainable businesses and graduate from extreme poverty. As DREAMS  launched in Uganda in 2022, design workshops were held in Ethiopia as the program is preparing to launch there soon. DREAMS will collectively reach more than 33,000 households and impact more than 200,000 lives across the two countries.

Integrated Innovative Digital Technologies to Increase Impact

As we continue to grow our program, it is crucial that we invest in digital solutions to ensure our entrepreneurs accelerate their business success, while at the same time increasing scale and impact. That’s why we partnered with DreamStart Labs in 2022 to pilot the DreamSave app, which allows our entrepreneurs to digitally track their savings group records using their mobile phones. In addition, we expanded our use of battery-powered projectors during business training sessions in Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda, using videos to compliment in-person instruction and improve retention and engagement within our training content. We’ve also continued to expand our use of phone mentoring to better serve our entrepreneurs. Village Enterprise Business Mentors are using a blended approach of in-person meetings and phone mentoring sessions to allow for more personalized touch points with entrepreneurs and reducing the amount of time our mentors spend traveling between villages. 

Invested in and Grew Our World-Class African Team 

We saw many programmatic achievements in 2022, but our team was at the core of everything we did. By putting our values of ubuntu, passion, integrity, innovation, and sustainability at the forefront of all that we do, we have continued to invest in and expand our world-class team which has now grown to 440 global team members. As we’ve tripled in size over the past five years, we continue to ensure our programs are locally-led—97% of our team is African.

Thank you for making all of this and more possible in 2022! For a deeper dive into all that we accomplished, as well as a look at the past five years, check out our recently published Five-Year Report. We’re grateful for your continued support, and we look forward to going even further together in 2023.

The post Ten of Our Greatest Achievements from 2022 appeared first on Village Enterprise.

As the wind sweeps its way across the drylands of northern Kenya, there’s a momentary reprieve from the oppressive heat, but quickly it returns and brings with it the reality of the ongoing drought. While dry seasons come and go for communities in East Africa, this time it’s different. Climate change has escalated the situation into the worst drought in four decades, bringing devastating effects to the entire region. A lack of seasonal rainfall—year after year—means significant crop failure, the death of livestock, and the depletion of all household reserves.

Without crops and livestock, many families in the region are no longer able to earn a sufficient income, which has exacerbated conflict as communities fight over the dwindling resources. To complicate matters, northern Kenya has long been vulnerable to food insecurity and rising inflation continues to make the situation dire. As a result of all of these external challenges, more and more children—like Miriamu’s grandson—are becoming acutely malnourished. 

To combat acute child malnutrition in northern Kenya, Village Enterprise has partnered with Catholic Relief Services, the Isiolo and Marsabit county governments, and other local partners and agencies to implement USAID Nawiri (Nawiri is a Swahili word meaning to thrive). Funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, USAID Nawiri launched in 2019 and is a resilience food security activity in Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu, and Turkana counties. The primary goal of the project is to sustainably reduce the persistent rates of acute child malnutrition in these counties by increasing the consumption of—and access to—safe foods which meet daily nutrient requirements. It also aims to address some of the underlying, systemic issues which have led to the high rates of acute child malnutrition in the first place, such as food and market systems, health and nutrition systems, limited livelihood diversification, and challenging gender and social norms.

To achieve these objectives, Village Enterprise has taken our poverty graduation model and layered it with education on health, nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene. Additionally, on top of receiving business training, mentorship, access to savings groups, and grants to launch sustainable businesses, USAID Nawiri participants also receive cash transfers to purchase nutrient-dense food, medical care, and household items. These transfers enable participants to meet their immediate needs without having to interfere with the cash flow of their newly established businesses.

After seeing positive results in the early stages of implementation, USAID committed to significantly scaling up the program earlier this year. With 129 current Village Enterprise staff, 53 part-time enumerators, and an increased goal to reach 14,310 households, this intervention will impact the lives of 85,860 women, children, and men by September 30, 2023—making it one of Village Enterprise’s largest projects to date.

“USAID Kenya sees the adapted poverty graduation approach as an anchor activity for USAID Nawiri,” comments Emily Mkungo, Project Management Specialist for USAID Kenya. “Through the graduation model we are targeting the ultra poor and households with malnourished individuals, and moving them up the ladder to self-reliance. And within the same model layering interventions in health, behavior change, water, sanitation, and hygiene among others aimed at reducing persistent acute malnutrition around the same community. I look forward to the impact this model will have on the planned target of 85,860 people in the coming two years.”

Most notably, 1,949 out of the 2,051 entrepreneurs (95%) who began our program this fiscal year are women, such as Miriamu. Prior to joining USAID Nawiri, Miriamu’s husband was killed by bandits, leaving her the sole caregiver for her seven children. One by one, she began selling her livestock to provide for her family as she had no other means for generating income. Soon there were no animals left to sell and the family struggled to meet their daily needs—often skipping meals and foregoing necessary medical care because they simply could not afford it.

This all changed when she joined USAID Nawiri. Through training and mentorship from Village Enterprise, Miriamu not only learned how to start and operate a business, but how to ensure it remains sustainable and resilient despite the environmental or economic challenges she may face. While she was getting her retail business off the ground, the cash transfers provided her family with the necessary means to purchase nutrient-dense food and medical care, especially for her grandson whose health required immediate attention at the start of the program.

And as her business grew, so did her confidence. “Nawiri has given me and other women dignity,” Miriamu says. “Even women can support and provide for their families if economically empowered.” And that’s exactly what she did. Because of her determination and dedication to change the future for her family, she has been able to use the profits from her business to pay for school fees, cover additional medical expenses when her children get sick, purchase clothes, and build food reserves for her family—all of which were impossible beforehand.

For Miriamu and thousands of other families like hers, USAID Nawiri exists as an alternative to traditional humanitarian relief—instead of only responding to acute child malnutrition through emergency aid, Village Enterprise and Catholic Relief Services are equipping communities with the means to build sustainable livelihoods full of dignity and hope. As Miriamu reflects on her journey with USAID Nawiri, she remarks how meaningful this experience has been. “My family’s future is secure,” she says. Not only is Miriamu’s business generating consistent income, but her grandson has been medically cleared as healthy, no longer considered malnourished or requiring special treatment.

Miriamu has also joined a local business savings group, meeting weekly with other entrepreneurs and putting away money for emergencies or specific business purposes. By working hard over three months to meet her targets, Miriamu saved enough money to buy a goat—the first animal she’s owned since having to sell all of her late husband’s livestock. This goat will serve as a way to expand into a new business market and diversify her income, but most importantly it’s a significant milestone and source of pride for her. She has lovingly named her goat Nawiri.

All featured photos were taken by Village Enterprise business mentors.

The post Alleviating Child Malnutrition, One Business at a Time appeared first on Village Enterprise.

We’re proud to report that the study showed overwhelmingly positive results, and a sustained and often increasing impact for our entrepreneurs and their families. In fact, both household consumption and savings continued to rise after the end of our program with an 83% increase in consumption and a 933% increase in savings over five years. You can read the full report here.

“We’re thrilled to share our new longitudinal study results, which show sustained or improved results for the households we serve five years after participating in the Village Enterprise graduation program,” says Celeste Brubaker, Chief Impact Officer at Village Enterprise. “These findings are complemented by our recent external RCT results, which found no evidence of declining program impact over time. Results from both studies are especially remarkable given that final data collection for both took place in 2021 when millions of households in Africa were being pushed back into poverty due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The data builds a compelling case that Village Enterprise graduates first-time entrepreneurs into a state of resilience.”

Building resilience is extremely important in Sub-Saharan Africa, as the negative impacts of climate change, inflation, and the pandemic all have the potential to be catastrophic for families living in extreme poverty. The results from the longitudinal study provide more strong evidence that our program equipped entrepreneurs with the skills they needed to adapt to the negative economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting their ability to adapt to future crises, or global and local shocks. Of note, 88% of the entrepreneurs in this study also reported the skills they learned through Village Enterprise helped them cope with the economic shocks of Covid-19. 

The longitudinal study results are especially meaningful as they build on the results from the Village Enterprise Development Impact Bond. Independently evaluated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) by IDinsight, our program achieved a projected lifetime benefit-cost ratio of 540%. In other words, for every $1 invested in the communities, over $5 of new income is generated by our entrepreneurs. The social benefits far exceed what it cost Village Enterprise to implement the program, including training entrepreneurs, awarding seed capital grants, and providing ongoing business mentoring and support during the first year. This showcases the immense power of our graduation program to sustainably and cost-effectively increase the income of our entrepreneurs, putting them on a sustainable path out of extreme poverty. Just like our longitudinal study, the RCT results were achieved despite the onset of the pandemic and the subsequent market closures and country-wide lockdowns.

On top of these achievements, we have made significant improvements to our program since 2017. These improvements include the implementation of a powerful adaptive management system, a streamlined and more interactive training curriculum, and the use of digital technologies—such as videos and mobile cash transfers—to maximize our efficiency and overall impact. Since these improvements were implemented after entrepreneurs in the longitudinal study graduated from our program, we hope to see even greater results for our entrepreneurs in future studies.

To further magnify our impact in the years to come, we plan to continue testing the latest technologies and methods for training, coaching, and evaluating. Most importantly, we will continue to keep our entrepreneurs at the forefront of everything we do. In an era of increased global shocks from Covid-19, conflict, and climate change, it is imperative we make sure the most vulnerable families have access to our program, equipping them with the skills and resources to adapt and thrive. To learn more about the Village Enterprise longitudinal study, read the full report using the link below. 

“In addition to confirming the persistent and often growing impact of our program in the communities we serve, the report contains important insights on outcomes for different population segments and the mediating influencers of impact,” Celeste says. “This is a fantastic read for anyone interested in learning more about fostering entrepreneurship and resilience among women living in extreme poverty in rural Africa.”

Read the full report here.

The post Results from the Village Enterprise Five-Year Longitudinal Study appeared first on Village Enterprise.

Here is just some of what we accomplished in 2019:

1. In May 2019, Village Enterprise reached the important milestone of one million lives transformed! As of the end of 2019, we have started 48,000+ businesses, trained 185,000+ entrepreneurs, and transformed 1,042,00+ lives.

2. Our program participants’ income soared! Their increase in income* grew from 35% in 2018 to 71% in 2019, more than doubling. Learn more about our impact. (*Income is measured through participants’ consumption and expenditure.)

3. We continued to learn from two years of implementing Africa’s first Development Impact Bond for poverty alleviation. Learn more about Village Enterprise’s Development Impact Bond.

4. We revamped our training materials, making them more interactive and adding new digital tools for our business mentors. Better training has led to the increased success of our business owners. Learn more about our innovations.

5. Village Enterprise was a 2019 Drucker Innovation Award Finalist out of 403 applicants! Innovation continues to drive our organization forward with a focus on human-centered design and data-driven decision-making.

6. We were named one of the Top 10 Poverty Nonprofits in 2020 by ImpactMatters, in recognition of our high cost-effectiveness and sustainable impact on the lives of our business owners and their families. Our results were featured in the New York Times.

7. We launched new partnerships with Mercy Corps to continue our work with refugees and out-of-school youth in Uganda.  See our partnerships.

8. We developed award-winning dashboards for our field staff to better monitor the progress of participants’ small businesses and savings groups.

9. We were featured in the 10^th edition of Peter Singer’s book, The Life You Can Save, and our Uganda Country Director, Winnie Auma, narrated one of the chapters of the audio version, alongside celebrities such as Kristen Bell, Paul Simon, etc.

10. Village Enterprise invested in creating policies and training materials for our organization that ensure the welfare and safety of our program participants, community members, and employees, and we trained other organizations on best practices at the Segal Family Foundation Annual Meeting in September. See more about our Safeguarding training.

We look forward to continuing to work together in 2020 to end extreme poverty!

All our best,
Dianne Calvi

The post Our Top 10 for 2019 appeared first on Village Enterprise.

– Winnie Auma

Winnie Auma is the Uganda Country Director of Village Enterprise. She has been a part of Village Enterprise since 2010 and held numerous positions within the organization. She holds degrees in Education and in Business Administration and Management, and was selected by the Harvard Kennedy School in May 2019 to participate in their Emerging Leaders Program for rising U.S. and international leaders. Winnie narrates an audiobook chapter of Peter Singer’s 10th-anniversary edition of his landmark book on reducing extreme poverty, The Life You Can Save, alongside celebrities Kristen Bell, Stephan Fry, and Paul Simon.

Peter Singer published his landmark book The Life You Can Save in 2009 to demonstrate why we must help those living in extreme poverty and illustrate the many ways to save lives by giving effectively.  In the decade since, the book has created massive change reducing global extreme poverty, founded a nonprofit organization of the same name to promote the idea of effective giving, raised millions of dollars for effective charities, and improved countless lives.

The 10^th Anniversary Edition of The Life You Can Save addresses the continuing need for change and aims to inform, inspire, and empower all to help those in need. Village Enterprise’s Uganda Country Director, Winnie Auma narrates a chapter of the audiobook version alongside celebrities Kristen Bell, Stephan Fry, Paul Simon, and more, and Village Enterprise is prominently featured in the section “Better than Aid” of the book. Download the ebook and audiobook here for FREE today.

The post When you touch a life, you’re changing generations appeared first on Village Enterprise.

I follow Santa through tall grasses, past banana plants that are slightly bent as if in a mid-bow after a tremendous ballet, and by sorghum and maize fields. She pushes her hands ahead and breaks any branches or plants that are blocking the path. We reach a sea of white cotton buds and enter the thick bush to find her fellow business owner busy harvesting. They share a greeting, and then Santa also begins plucking the fluffy crop from its beige cocoon. Santa began this cotton business a few months ago through the Village Enterprise market linkage pilot program in partnership with The Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADCO). The business has given Santa hope. It has given her the ability to see that there are more possibilities in this world, which is something she hasn’t always been able to realize.

Life has been difficult for Santa. She spent more than five years in a refugee camp during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency in northern Uganda when she and thousands of families were exiled from their homes. The camp was only a few kilometers from her family home and it was there that she gave birth to a child that only lived a few months. Then her husband was killed by the LRA. Santa was destroyed. She did not know how to carry on with life.

Eventually, she married her current husband and together they planted beans and sorghum during their first year of marriage. But the LRA burned everything to the ground. Then, they bought an ox and plow, but the ox died. Things felt pretty dire for Santa. It was one thing after the other. She carried on for a few years without a source of income and struggled to put food on the table.

Mirriam Aguti, a Village Enterprise business mentor, is the person who put an end to Santa’s difficult situation. She invited her to join the Village Enterprise program and learn how to start a business of her own. She rigorously applied herself to the lessons presented by Mirriam and became energized by the independence she gained from knowing how to earn and spend her own money. She was so inspired that she has since recruited many people to join the Village Enterprise program to start businesses of their own. She is an inspiration in her community due to her hard work and commitment to her cotton growing business.

Santa’s energetic joy cascades around her being and it is contagious: she was elected the Chairwoman of her business savings group, which is composed of ten three-person businesses or 30 individuals, because of her determined spirit. People are drawn to her because of her charisma and wisdom. She has an exceptional ability to bring people together and make them feel confident and strong.

Santa learned from Village Enterprise business trainings the importance of caring for her community: she goes and advises people in order to help people in her community feel cared for and to resolve conflicts.

“You are stronger and do better in a group than alone. Someone may be in a poor situation, Village Enterprise can uplift that person by helping him/her start a three-person business. When three people are given $150, together they come with different ideas and different skill sets, and they think through the smartest ways they can use that money to build a successful and profitable business.”

Santa dreams to build her own concrete house for herself and to build a strong, caring and united community. She is a leader determined to continue to uplift her village and to be an inspiration to those who haven’t been empowered yet.

This #GivingTuesday we want to fund two entire villages in northern Uganda so more people like Santa can realize their potential. Join our campaign: donate.villageenterprise.org/givingtuesday2019

The post Santa the Chairwoman from Paicho appeared first on Village Enterprise.

Years ago, I had a cup of coffee with Debbie Hall to learn more about why she was involved in Village Enterprise. She enthusiastically told me how exciting her work was and how encouraging it was. Her passion was contagious, and I had to learn more. The nonprofit work I was doing at the time was heart-warming and felt important, but I didn’t leap at the chance like she did to tell others about the progress we were making and share my passion about why they too should get involved. Over time, I became a donor, then helped with development and social media, and then joined the board. This month, I was asked to take over for Debbie as the board chair for Village Enterprise. I could not be more honored or humbled to be board chair of this amazing organization. What an exciting ride it has been!

This is an especially exciting (and a bit overwhelming) time to get more deeply involved in Village Enterprise. Today, 767 million people live in extreme poverty and over half of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa. By 2030, 88% of people living in extreme poverty will reside in Sub-Saharan Africa. The time is now to scale the most cost-effective and impactful solutions. Graduation programs like ours are proving to be an extremely effective method for lifting people out of extreme poverty. Village Enterprise has a graduation program that is both unique and flexible. It is unique because it is the only graduation program focused on group-based entrepreneurship. We train three individuals to start a business, which enables three families to be helped, costs to be less, and risks to be shared. Village Enterprise is flexible because it is easily adaptable to various contexts with a focus on vulnerable populations, such as women, refugees, and youth to name a few.

This takes me back to the individual. By helping a refugee to start a business, Village Enterprise doesn’t just start a business. We are enabling a family to send their children to school. We are enabling a family to not have to marry their daughter at a young age to provide for her needs. We are enabling individuals to think bigger and have hope for the future and resilience for the challenges ahead.

How do we know it works? Village Enterprise participated in a large scale, independent third-party randomized control trial. This trial proved the program to be both high impact and cost-effective. Our program led to increases in all the poverty alleviation indicators evaluated: consumption, assets, savings, and income. Significant improvements were also found in food security, nutrition, and subjective well-being, as well as enhanced standing of the women in the community.

We are also proud to say that Impact Matters completed a thorough evidence-gathering audit that we are the most cost-effective poverty alleviation program in Africa. By receiving training and resources in small groups, business owners are able to confidently share their knowledge and share the risks associated with starting a small business.

We have countless (well, I guess we counted and reached one million…) stories about lives touched by going through our program. As with many of our entrepreneurs, once we have trained them in how to start a business and participate in a savings group, the business owners begin to see opportunities all around them. Many of the people I met in Africa now run multiple businesses. Catherine, for example, still works closely with her business partners rearing sheep and has a small poultry business on her own. She and her partners have also begun selling silverfish at the market. Another woman I met in Uganda realized once she had her first business up and running that she had a mango tree in her yard. After going through the Village Enterprise program, she began to gather the mangos that she and her family used to eat, and she started to sell them at the market to pay to send her children to school.

My husband and I have been so excited about the successes that we have seen again and again with Village Enterprise that we decided to invest in the very first Development Impact Bond (DIB) for poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa because Village Enterprise was chosen out of a field of organizations to implement their program. This DIB shows that Village Enterprise can scale with impact.

Village Enterprise is the only nonprofit to get the top ratings and recommendations from all of these organizations: Charity Navigator, Great Nonprofits, Guidestar, The Life You Can Save, Impact Matters, and Founder’s Pledge. While it is great to have these endorsements, I am most proud of our highly talented local African staff. Over 95% of our staff are local Africans who care deeply about innovating our program to have the highest impact with sustainable results.

I may not be counted as one of the million lives influenced by the Village Enterprise program, but my life has certainly changed by being a part of its story. My kids think about the privileges that they have in a new way. My son talks about the man he met in Uganda who makes soap to sell at the market, how hard it was to stir the vat of soap, and how grateful he was that the man encouraged him to try. My daughter remembers the kids that enthusiastically took her to the hand washing station in their village to proudly show her that they had learned the importance of hand washing and hygiene as part of a Village Enterprise partnership.

If you want to hear more stories of individual lives changed as a result of Village Enterprise, I encourage you to go watch a few short videos or read some stories here.

Katie Boland has been the Village Enterprise Board Chair since 2019. She is the co-founder of The Delta Fund, an organization focused on supporting and growing provable and scalable efforts to alleviate extreme poverty. Katie is on the board of several nonprofits and consults with organizations working to decrease disadvantages in the current societal systems. Prior to her work on The Delta Fund Katie worked as an educator, teacher trainer and in curriculum development. She has been an advisor for education improvement initiatives. Katie holds a B.S. in Biology and Natural Sciences & Mathematics from Washington & Lee University and an M.Ed. in Science Education from Vanderbilt University. She lives in Bellevue, Washington with her husband and two children.

The post One Million Reached, One Business at a Time appeared first on Village Enterprise.

Village Enterprise works in rural East Africa where over 60% of the population lives below the global extreme poverty line of $1.90 per day, and where little or no formal employment exists. By equipping these first-time entrepreneurs with the tools and resources to create sustainable three-person businesses — training, mentoring, $150 in seed capital, and access to savings and growth capital — we break the cycle of poverty for our entrepreneurs and their families. Since 1987, Village Enterprise has started over 43,000 businesses and already trained more than 169,000 East Africans.
This is the story of Anik’s transformative “Fund-a-Village” donation for the village of Sabwani Marinda.

It’s a bright, sunny day in Sabwani Marinda when Monica Sitienei, a mother of six and a kiosk business owner, leads me through a field of green grass. We pass a cluster of saplings, greet a group of villagers, and the distinct sound of pig squeals becomes audible. We come across a makeshift gate, enter, and face a large barn made from mud and sticks. Two women and a man work together with fixed determination to capture their six pigs which they are eager to show off to us.

After the three business owners gather their swine, Monica conducts introductions: Florence Jeptekei, Beatrice Tengan, and Richard Simatwa own the piggery together. They show me their growing pigs and the barn where they are kept at night. They proudly explain how they used their Village Enterprise grant to begin a small garden, where they raised tomatoes and greens. They sold the produce and used their savings to purchase the profitable pigs.

When I ask how their lives have changed since they started the business, they instantly begin sharing various examples. Richard mentions that he is now able to pay for school fees and uniforms so that his children can go to school. He also saved enough money to pay for his son’s wedding.

“We used to be weak and tired,” Florence explains, “and now we have energy.”

These tangible transformations are common amongst the fifteen business groups that I interviewed in this small village in northern Kenya.

The businesses in this small village were funded by Lurn Inc., a platform founded by Anik Singal in 2004 that strives to empower others to create and grow passion-based businesses. With the $25,000 grant from Lurn, Inc., Village Enterprise trained 150 new entrepreneurs, started 50 new three-person businesses, and transformed the lives of approximately 1,000 children, women, and men. Each new business improves the standard of living for approximately 20 individuals based on the average family size in the region. At Village Enterprise, we look to partners like Lurn, Inc. to fund the implementation of our one-year, cost-effective Graduation program that empowers the rural extreme poor to lift themselves out of poverty through the income and savings generated from small sustainable businesses.

As we continue along our journey, we arrive at a large open field where two older men stand proudly in the middle of their cabbage patch. Esokori Etabo and Marko Ewoi attribute the success of their business to the Village Enterprise agriculture training they received. Since starting the business, they have earned 250,000ksh ($2,500) and have been able to purchase a generator to pump water for their irrigation system. They grow and sell tomatoes and cabbage and own a cow and a sheep. They now even employ others to help with the day-to-day upkeep of their farm.

 

Monica leads us away from the field and onto a long dirt road. In front of us is a herd of brown cows that slowly walk in our direction. “That one is mine,” Monica says when the cows pass us. She was able to buy a cow with the profits earned from the small business she owns with Caroline Simiyu and Lomeyen Kerio. The small produce stand is positioned on the edge of the main road that runs through their village. It’s an opportune spot to sell small bags of flour, handmade donuts, dried fish, seasoning, and packets of dish soap. The three women harmoniously work together to care for their sheep, travel to town to purchase new stock and sell their wares. “I used to depend on my husband, which caused so much conflict. But now I have my own source of money. I can even put my children in private school,” Caroline said as she poured a small amount of sugar into a piece of newspaper which had been folded into a cone shape.

The next business is run by Elizabeth Kamboy, Sally Chirchir, and Janet Najala, three women who make and sell soap. They initially started a cake baking business, but due to low profits, they chose to redirect their efforts. They used some of their earnings to send Elizabeth to the local Women’s Empowerment Center to attend a workshop on soap making, which is more profitable and less competitive than a bakery business. They have earned around $1,000 and plan to invest in a machine that will help them make bar soap. “I like my business because it feeds us. It has also built our name in the community.” The women supply soaps and detergents to local schools. They are genuinely content with the way their business has changed their lives and do not miss the days when they dug holes and harvested corn for other people.

These businesses in Sabwani Marinda have changed the community forever. There is less conflict and more peace. Women and men are independently earning their own money. Children are in school. And most are eating three meals a day. It is hard to believe that prior to the Lurn Fund-a-Village initiative, food was challenging for most of the business owners to procure. Now? They’ve saved enough money to pay for weddings, college, water pumps, solar lights, and their mindsets have changed. They see potential in their businesses and want to work together to expand and diversify.

Seeing how Sabwani Marinda changed in such a substantial and encouraging way through the Lurn Fund-a-Village initiative shows how investing in entrepreneurs — even those who begin their journeys in extreme poverty — is transformative with results that speak for themselves. As I said goodbye to Monica, she asked that I return one day to see how her village continues to change. I can’t wait to see what’s to come in this bright, flourishing community full people who are determined to continue on this great path of success.

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