That’s why we’re thrilled to announce on Earth Day new funding from the Arcus Foundation to expand Village Enterprise’s PARKS project in Kibale National Park, Uganda!

The Poverty Alleviation and Removal of Kibale Snares (PARKS) project, implemented in partnership with Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, was launched in 2021 with funding from the Arcus Foundation to reduce extreme poverty among rural communities near Kibale National Park and to protect one of the largest remaining populations of endangered East African chimpanzees and their habitat. Without opportunities to earn sustainable incomes, households living in extreme poverty near the park have often relied on illegal hunting and lumbering in order to provide for their families. Village Enterprise works to equip these communities with the training, startup funding, and ongoing business mentoring to launch businesses that do not harm vital ecosystems in and around Kibale National Park. As a result, households are able to earn greater incomes, break the cycle of extreme poverty, and become stewards of their environment.

PARKS impact to date

Three years into this project, PARKS has already made a tangible impact in the Kibale National Park region. To date, Village Enterprise has trained 3,823 entrepreneurs (63% of whom are women) who have worked together in groups of three to launch 1,077 businesses in the area. As a result of their businesses, more than 20,000 lives have been impacted as these new business owners lift themselves and their families onto a sustainable pathway out of extreme poverty.

On top of these outcomes, Village Enterprise has helped establish 109 business savings groups (BSGs) as part of the PARKS project. The BSGs are a crucial part of our poverty graduation model—giving entrepreneurs a community where they are encouraged to put away savings on a weekly basis. They also provide an important safety net as entrepreneurs are able to access greater capital in the form of loans that they can take out in case of emergency or to further expand their business.

Last year, Village Enterprise also introduced a new component to strengthen the climate and conservation pillar of this project: conservation champions. Within each BSG, a conservation champion is selected, trained on conservation practices, and then equipped to share their expertise with BSG and community members. Together with their village, the conservation champion creates a tailored conservation plan for their community that supports the protection of wildlife and vital ecosystems. The conservation champions then work with fellow BSG members to ensure all newly-launched businesses are environmentally-friendly and conduct follow-up meetings to ensure actionable steps have been taken—at both the household and community level—towards achieving the village’s conservation plan. To date, Village Enterprise has trained and empowered 52 conservation champions.

On top of launching businesses to reduce the need for illegal hunting, and introducing conservation messaging to reduce habitat destruction, PARKS is taking another proactive measure to ensure the local population of endangered East African chimpanzees is protected. Through Ngogo Chimpanzee Project’s work on the project, 824 hunting snares have been removed from Kibale National Park. With active monitoring of park borders, anti-poaching patrols, and the removal of snares, PARKS aims to continue seeing diminished hunting in and around the park and an increase in the overall chimpanzee population.

Meet two extraordinary entrepreneurs

Wilson from Katabe Village

Prior to joining Village Enterprise, Wilson, 55, relied on farming and casual labor to provide for his eight children. His crops—which he planted in the wetlands of Mpanga in Kibale National Park—yielded very little each season and, unbeknownst to him, began to degrade the swamp’s ecosystem.

As Village Enterprise provided training on how to launch a sustainable business, the conservation messaging struck home for Wilson. He realized he needed to play an active role in restoring the wetlands and quickly got to work. By moving his crops inland and utilizing innovative farming techniques to maximize his smaller plot of land, Wilson began growing and selling cabbages, zucchini, and tomatoes, allowing the wetlands to naturally restore themselves. With his profits, Wilson diversified his income sources by launching a beekeeping business in the area. Not only does it provide a secondary source of income throughout the year, but the bees help pollinate gardens in the area and keep out roaming elephants, preventing a loss of damaged crops and reducing the chances of potential human-wildlife conflict.

With the guidance of the conservation champion from his BSG, Wilson was also able to use some of his business profits to build energy-saving cooking stoves and plant 50 mango trees. Because these cooking stoves are more efficient than traditional stoves, they require less firewood which helps reduce the need for sourcing lumber. Additionally, the mango trees contribute both to the area’s biodiversity, and the fruit can be sold for profit or supplement his household’s food reserves. With his conservation champion’s guidance, Wilson has been able to restore the natural habitat around his community, and utilize the natural resources available in a way that does not harm the environment.

Wilson’s businesses have not only advanced conservation and habitat restoration, but they’ve impacted his own life and the lives of his children as well. Using his business profits, he’s been able to pay school fees for all of his children and has bought two cows and five goats. He plans to start selling their milk and offspring with the hopes of finishing a new home.

Grace from Busoro Hamusoko Village

Grace, 49, found farming increasingly difficult due to the unpredictable weather in her village brought on by climate change. As a single mother to nine children, she struggled to make enough money to provide for her children’s basic needs, such as consistent meals or paying for all of their school fees. But this all began to change when she joined Village Enterprise.

Through the training she received on business diversification, Grace knew that she needed to have multiple sources of income in order to build resilience and mitigate the risks caused by climate change. Together with her two business partners, they first launched a retail store selling household goods and food staples, and quickly used their profits to expand into goat rearing and growing maize. Collectively, these three businesses will support Grace and her business partners throughout the year as the weather patterns fluctuate.

With additional training on the importance of conservation near Kibale National Park, Grace’s conservation champion also helped her plant coffee trees in the area. Not only will these trees contribute to reforestation and bolstering the ecosystem, but harvesting coffee beans from the trees will be yet another source of income that Grace can use to support her family.

Already, Grace has been able to pay school fees for her children and provide them with increased and more nutritious meals. Her dream is to be able to continue saving up enough to send all of her children to university, as well as build a new house. Through her hard work, creativity, and determination, she is well on her way.

The future of PARKS

With the new funding from the Arcus Foundation, 1,890 more entrepreneurs like Wilson and Grace will be equipped with the training, startup capital, and business mentoring to launch 630 environmentally-friendly businesses and lift themselves out of extreme poverty. The funding also provides resources for removing snares, furthering conservation messaging through 42 additional conservation champions, and implementing anti-poaching patrols to reduce illegal hunting and lumbering. As a result of these conservation efforts and the businesses launched, not only will 12,600 lives be transformed, but Kibale National Park’s ecosystem will be better safeguarded, and the population of endangered East African chimpanzees will be better protected.

By empowering local communities to launch sustainable business ventures, PARKS is providing a critical link between conservation efforts and the fight against extreme poverty in rural Africa. When individuals like Wilson and Grace are given the opportunity to thrive economically while preserving their natural environment, it not only enhances their livelihoods but contributes to building a sustainable future for all.

The post Thriving together: How new enterprises around Kibale National Park are reducing poverty and saving endangered chimpanzees appeared first on Village Enterprise.

This International Women’s Day, we hope you’ll join us as we take a look at four of our extraordinary entrepreneurs across East Africa and celebrate their hard work and determination to build brighter futures for themselves and their families.

Joanne from Mt. Elgon, Kenya

In the mountainous region of western Kenya, Joanne, 52, and her husband take care of five children and four grandchildren. After completing training through Village Enterprise and Days for Girls in 2021, Joanne launched a business making and selling washable menstrual pads—a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solution for a region without widespread access to feminine hygiene products.

Joanne was part of a unique project designed to help women from coffee-growing communities in Mt. Elgon break cycles of extreme poverty while also dismantling menstrual health stigmas. Funded by The Starbucks Foundation, Village Enterprise and Days for Girls sought to improve the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward menstrual heath as well as worked to ensure women like Joanne could overcome barriers and launch vital businesses needed by the community.

Along with her two business partners, who are also women, Joanne began selling their menstrual pads to nearby schools in Mt. Elgon. As a result of their efforts—and those of similar businesses started by the project—more girls in their community have been able to stay in school now that they have necessary feminine hygiene products. Women have reported an increase in self-confidence, self-respect, and self-reliance, and this project’s training on menstrual health has also led to a reduction in teen pregnancies. In fact, prior to the program, roughly 300 girls in the area dropped out of school each year because they became pregnant. But after the program, the number dropped significantly in 2022 to 60 girls. In 2023, after the program had formally ended, it continued to drop again—this time to just 28 students. As of 2024, data from the Mt. Elgon Sub-county Ministry of Education shows that enrollment for girls in high school has surpassed that for boys in the area.

Not only did Joanne’s business meet a critical need for female students, it also began slowly sparking conversations among men on menstrual health and the societal stigmas facing women. As fathers in the community witnessed the positive impact of Joanne’s initiative on their daughters’ lives, attitudes toward menstrual health began to change.

While the project between Village Enterprise and Days for Girls concluded after two years, the impact continues. The transformative influence of Joanne’s business has extended to her own life as well. Not only is she no longer living in extreme poverty, but she’s used her profits to renovate her home, purchase livestock, and pay school fees for her children. Her confidence has grown with her business success and she now sees herself as an important voice in the community, earning respect from local leaders.

As part of The Starbucks Foundation’s goal to positively impact 1 million women and girls in coffee-, tea-, and cocoa-growing communities, The Starbucks Foundation and Village Enterprise are continuing to increase income and savings and build resilience for an additional 500 women in Mt. Elgon’s coffee-growing communities by equipping first-time entrepreneurs with the tools and resources to reach their full potential and pursue their dreams.

To date, The Starbucks Foundation has empowered more than 2,400 female entrepreneurs to launch sustainable businesses through Village Enterprise, transforming the lives of more than 16,000 women, men, and children in Mt. Elgon. On top of this impact, over 8,000 women and girls have been reached in the region with cost-effective and sustainable menstrual health products. The generational impact of this will only continue to grow as more young girls continue to have unburdened access to school.

Sharon from Agago, Uganda

Before joining Village Enterprise, Sharon never imagined that she could be a leader in her community. But now, she’s proud to be one, and she’s helping other women to become leaders, too.

One of the core components of Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation model is business savings groups. Composed of 30 entrepreneurs, these groups meet weekly throughout our entire program to build savings and foster community as members support one another on their journeys to becoming first-time business owners. When the time came to select a chairperson for their business savings group, Sharon was nominated by her friend. As the votes poured in from her fellow members, they all voted in agreement: Sharon would be their first chairperson and leader.

Although she was nervous of her newfound position and responsibilities, Sharon was able to overcome her nerves through Village Enterprise’s leadership training. Her Village Enterprise business mentor also worked with her, teaching skills on how to lead people, manage group meetings, and navigate public speaking. “Because of how much I have grown through Village Enterprise, I am encouraging other women to start taking leadership positions at any level, not to shy away, but to take courage and practice the leadership skills that Village Enterprise has taught us,” said Sharon. “The training that we received has enabled us to move from nowhere, to somewhere.”

On top of growing into her own as an effective and influential leader in her community, Sharon’s business has been tremendously successful. She’s been able to use her profits to purchase household assets—such as solar panels, a bicycle, utensils, a radio, goats and pigs—and she’s currently saving up with her husband to purchase an ox which they plan to use for starting their own household farming business.

Halima from Dollo Ado, Ethiopia

Due to the prolonged droughts in southeastern Ethiopia, all of Halima’s livestock perished. With no other option but to rebuild her life elsewhere, Halima arrived at the Heleweyn Refugee Settlement as an internally displaced person along with her nine children. Without a way to earn an income, Halima relied on food from humanitarian aid organizations and asking distant relatives for help, but this was often not enough, and she and her family were left to live on less than $1 USD per day. This took a toll on Halima both physically and emotionally, as she was constantly worried about meeting her family’s basic needs.

But near the end of 2023, everything changed as Halima was selected for DREAMS. This award-winning model combines Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program with Mercy Corps’ expertise in Market Systems Development to better serve refugees and their host communities and help them build sustainable livelihoods. Halima was part of the first cohort of DREAMS entrepreneurs as the model launched in Ethiopia thanks to funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the IKEA Foundation.

Through DREAMS, Halima learned not only how to operate a business, but the leadership, communication, and financial literacy skills to make her business successful. Together with two women, Halima opened a retail store selling honey and was connected with local suppliers to enhance the overall market system. But since the honey supply naturally fluctuated with the season’s availability, they also started a second business of buying and selling goats. Together, their two businesses have been so successful that they were able to expand their original honey business into a store that also sells vegetables and other groceries.

“Today is a different day to celebrate. I remember sitting at home without work, now I am actively running a business,” said Halima, reflecting on how much her life has changed since joining Village Enterprise. “I can send my children to better healthcare services if need be, my family’s living standard and decision making has improved, and my social status has been raised.”

Halima and her business partners have enjoyed setting goals together and sharing responsibilities as their business grows. Having only been in the program for six months, they’ve come so far from where they started and their journey of transformation has only just begun. “I am quite confident of our future,” said Halima. “I want to be among the best entrepreneurs selling honey and goats in the village, and I also want to inspire other women.”

Emerance from Rulindo, Rwanda

Before joining Village Enterprise, Emerance and her two business partners, Lucie and Domithile, were farmers for survival. They grew Irish potatoes, but their harvests often did not yield enough to adequately feed themselves and their families. But now, their business called “Bright Future ” is one of the most successful in their village.

Through Village Enterprise, Emerance learned basic business skills and how to diversify income streams, but the most important thing she learned was the culture of savings and how to invest into her business to help it grow. She started selling shoes because there was demand for a shoe store in her community, but after taking a loan through her business savings group—and later successfully paying it off in full—she expanded her business to sell fabrics, which she can also tailor for customers. Recently, she and her business partners also invested in chickens, which will serve as a third way to bring in income. Emerance and her business partners continue to keep a keen eye on other gaps in the market that their business could fill and are determined to become the most successful entrepreneurs in the area.

Emerance is proud of their business success so far, but even more proud of her ability to better provide for her children. Not only has she been able to send her three children back to school, but she’s even able to afford to send them all to private school. Confident that the quality of private education will better serve her children in the long run and provide more opportunities, Emerance knows the fees are worth it for their futures. Her business partner, Lucie, has also been able to use their business profits to care for her sister’s two children, both of whom have disabilities.

Emerance, Lucie, and Domithile each share a sense of pride when reflecting on where they started from. Where they used to depend entirely on their husbands, now they’re the ones providing for household needs and feeding their children. As they look to the future, Emerance and her team want to pay it forward, too. “We want to teach other young women how to become entrepreneurs,” said Emerance. That’s the power of entrepreneurship—not only does it transform the lives of business owners and their families, but the positive impact continues to ripple outward to neighbors, communities, and generations to come.

Joanne, Sharon, Halima, and Emerance are just four of the 275,000 entrepreneurs who have launched businesses through Village Enterprise, transforming over 1.65 million lives across East Africa. Together with your support, Village Enterprise can invest in empowering millions of more women to break the cycle of extreme poverty and build brighter futures for themselves and their families.

The post Extraordinary women, extraordinary entrepreneurs appeared first on Village Enterprise.

For Mercy, she dreamed of a career doing something she loved, but extreme poverty prevented her from pursuing these ambitions—her work options were limited to whatever job she could find in Kenya to earn an income and provide for her family. But through Village Enterprise, she’s reclaiming her career dreams and, for the first time in a long time, getting excited about what her future holds.

Several years ago, Mercy—who is now 39 years old and a mother of five—landed a job in a textile factory in downtown Nairobi. Even though it was two hours away from home and the pay was minimal, it was still an income. But a serious health issue forced her to quit her job and move back home to Mbooni, Kenya—a rural region where work opportunities are scarce and income inconsistent. Now depending entirely on her husband as the sole provider for their household, money grew tight and her family struggled financially. They began skipping meals to make their food reserves last longer, and they couldn’t afford school fees for all of their children.

At one point, Mercy—still struggling with her health issues, but determined to provide for her family—found work by making gravel. Day in and day out, she would crush large stones with a hammer in exchange for an average of 100KES ($0.67 USD) per day. To her, this was a low point in her life. She had dreamed of living comfortably with her family and working a career that brought her joy and fulfillment, but that felt impossibly far out of reach.

Mercy in front of uniforms that she printed through her business

But everything changed for Mercy when she was enrolled in the Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) and began Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program. KSEIP, launched in 2019 and funded by The World Bank, is a five-year collaboration between Village Enterprise, the Government of Kenya, the Global Development Incubator (GDI), and BOMA. The goal is to support the Government of Kenya as they begin to formally integrate a poverty graduation approach into their existing social protection programs. In doing so, KSEIP has the potential to provide millions of Kenyans with a reliable and sustainable pathway out of extreme poverty.

Mercy standing with Village Enterprise’s KSEIP Program Implementation Manager Isaiah Lekesike (far left), her Village Enterprise Business Mentor Martin Muendo (second to the right), and Jackson Muraguri, County Program Manager with the Global Development Incubator (far right)

Over the past four years, Village Enterprise has been training the government on all aspects of our poverty graduation model—from targeting households and establishing business savings groups to best practices in mentorship, technology, and curriculum development. During this time, the Government of Kenya’s role has primarily focused on observing Village Enterprise and learning-by-doing by participating in implementation activities such as mentoring and training. However, starting in November 2023, the roles will begin to shift—Village Enterprise will transition from directly implementing the program to supporting the Government of Kenya as they put everything they’ve learned into practice and begin implementing the program across the country. By providing ongoing technical assistance, Village Enterprise will continue to ensure that programming remains consistent with industry standards and best practices, and entrepreneurs like Mercy have the best resources they need to thrive.

True to Mercy’s creative personality and innovative thinking, she launched an incredibly unique business through KSEIP. Instead of starting a retail, farming, or livestock business like many first-time business owners in Village Enterprise, Mercy opened her very own printing business. Having originally thought of the idea while working in Nairobi, Mercy never dreamed it would be possible given her situation, but Martin, her Village Enterprise Business Mentor, believed in her and encouraged her to pursue her passion. Using custom screens and ink, Mercy prints designs and official logos on clothes and uniforms for local schools, businesses, and NGOs. And as the only printing business anywhere nearby, she’s thriving.

Mercy’s employee holding one of the shirts they printed for a local primary school (above). A table displaying some of the equipment Mercy uses to print (below).

Using the skills she learned through Village Enterprise and under the guidance of her business mentor, Mercy has been able to set up a value chain transporting supplies all the way from Nairobi to Mbooni. Not only has this made her business as efficient and cost-effective as possible, but it has allowed her to actively make connections with partners and tailors in the region and set the groundwork for her to expand her business as demand grows. With the flurry of exceptional feedback and increased orders from customers, Mercy is excited about what’s next—she dreams of expanding her skillset and one day becoming a designer herself, creating and printing her own designs. With the profits from her business, she’s already been able to purchase a smartphone and plans to set up an online store or social media account for her business. She’s also currently saving up for a sewing machine to take her business to the next level.

But for Mercy, having a thriving business isn’t the only thing that matters to her—she wants to use her success to help others. “When I started my business, the first thing to come into my mind was about others,” said Mercy. “I had a rough journey…so why can’t I involve others to make money like me?”

Having already hired two people from her community, she’s now mentoring them on her printing trade and helping them on their own journeys out of extreme poverty. In her vision for the future, she hopes to eventually employ and mentor dozens of other people through her business.

Mercy with two people from her community that she’s hired and started to mentor through her business

Several of the screens that Mercy and her team use to print designs

“KSEIP stands out as a distinctive program within Kenya,” said Isaiah Lekesike, KSEIP Program Implementation Manager at Village Enterprise. “It presents the country with a valuable opportunity to implement an initiative that has already demonstrated promising outcomes in addressing extreme poverty.” Through KSEIP, Village Enterprise has already trained 3,698 first-time business owners like Mercy who have launched sustainable, climate-smart businesses in their communities, making a real and lasting impact for generations to come.

KSEIP is part of a larger collective action strategy for Village Enterprise. While Village Enterprise provides the industry’s most cost-effective poverty graduation model compared to those independently and rigorously evaluated by a randomized controlled trial (RCT), it is African governments who are best equipped with the infrastructure and systems to significantly and effectively scale poverty graduation programs, helping to reach millions of people and empowering them to end extreme poverty in Africa once and for all. “By partnering with governments, we hold the key to a monumental shift—envisioning an Africa free from poverty, all in the span of a single generation,” said Taddeo Muriuki, Chief Government Relations Officer at Village Enterprise.

The Village Enterprise KSEIP team in Taita Taveta recently celebrating their two-year anniversary working in this community

Mercy has come a long way since having to crush stones into gravel for money. All of her school-aged children are now back in school, her family is eating consistent and nutritious meals, and she feels incredibly proud of the life she’s been able to build in such a short time. As she reflects on her journey, she credits her success in part to her own innate determination to create a better life for her and her children, but especially to her business mentor, Martin, who’s believed in her from the start. “He’s helped me think bigger, to see what’s possible,” said Mercy. With his mentorship and encouragement, and Village Enterprise’s training and support, Mercy’s confident she now has everything she needs to achieve her dreams.

Mercy outside of her printing business

The post Mercy’s Story: How KSEIP Helped Her Dream Again appeared first on Village Enterprise.

Two hours north of Kigali, past fields of tea farms and towns cascading down hillsides, is the rural village of Butare nestled in one of the many valleys of Rwanda. Rich with deep red soil and layered with every shade of green, Butare is the home of 87 entrepreneurs in Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program, including Bellancile.

Bellancile, 42, is the mother of six children ranging in age from 18 years to one month. Before joining Village Enterprise, everything in her household—from feeding her family to affording school fees—depended entirely on her husband. But with only one income, they struggled to sustain their growing family’s needs. Bellancile recalls, “When I used to ask my husband for money, it would create conflict.” Their lack of a sufficient income also began forcing the family to skip meals, forgo necessary household items, and begin pulling their children from school as they couldn’t afford school fees.

Bellancile, Pascasie, and Alphonsine holding hands next to their retail business, Twizerane.

But in March of 2022, things started to change for Bellancile and her family when she joined Village Enterprise’s poverty graduation program. Throughout several months of business and financial literacy education, Bellancile learned how to start and operate a small business, as well as the power of working alongside others. Together with two women in her community—Alphonsine, 34, and Pascasie, 60—they completed a cost-benefit and market analysis and determined a retail shop had the potential to do well in Butare. Under guidance from their Village Enterprise business mentor, they used their $180 USD business grant to launch their store, Twizerane—a Rwandan word meaning let us trust each other. “For the first time in my life, I started believing that I could do this,” says Bellancile, remembering what it meant to receive their business grant and open their store.

They started off small, only selling a local sorghum soda, but their prime location and in-demand product quickly launched them into popularity within the community. With their steady stream of profits, they began expanding their retail business to sell additional items such as rice, cassava flour, cooking oil, sugar, and other sodas—all things their village uses on a regular basis, but are sometimes difficult to access being so remote. Originally valued at $180 USD, their business is now worth $600, a 233% increase only six months after starting their business.

While some business groups expand into new business ventures together, Bellancile, Alphonsine, and Pascasie are happy keeping their joint venture a retail store. Instead, they’re using the profits from Twizerane to each start their own businesses at the household level, helping to diversify their individual incomes even further. Bellancile recently bought a pig and is excited to begin rearing and selling livestock, alongside Alphonsine and Pascasie who have also done the same.

Bellancile shows off the pig she purchased using the profits from her retail business.

Bellancile graduated from our program last month, and life looks much different for her now. “I used to think that a woman eats because her husband worked, but now I’m the one feeding my family,” states Bellancile proudly. She adds, “Since we’ve started our retail business, we haven’t missed a meal in our house.” Not only are her children eating consistent and healthy meals, but they’re back in school in brand new shoes and uniforms. Through her business savings group, she’s been able to save up enough money to purchase household items such as cups, utensils, and saucepans, but her greatest achievement so far has been renovating her home. Where there once was a dirt floor and walls littered with holes, now exists a smooth, cement floor and sturdy, hole-free walls. Since the renovations, her home has become a great sense of pride to her and her family.

“I used to think that a woman eats because her husband worked, but now I’m the one feeding my family,” states Bellancile proudly.

Bellancile stands outside of her home which she’s renovating using the profits from her businesses.

Apart from the assets she’s been able to purchase, her relationships have also flourished this past year. Now that her husband no longer feels the pressure of providing for his family alone, their relationship has improved substantially. In fact, she says it feels like they’re newlyweds again and she lights up each time he calls her “Honey”—which, according to Bellancile, happens a lot these days. Even Bellancile’s eldest son—having noticed his mother’s growth and success over the past year—has decided that when he graduates from school, he wants to study commerce and be a successful businessperson like her.

Bellancile—a woman who just one year ago had no financial mobility or standing in her community—now sees herself as a mentor and leader with newfound confidence and abilities. And she isn’t alone—in 2018, Innovation for Poverty Action published an independent randomized controlled trial which found that our program leads to increases in mental health, well-being, and sense of economic standing for women.

For Bellancile, it’s important that the knowledge she’s gained through Village Enterprise doesn’t stop with her. “Everything that I’ve learned, I want to share it with someone else,” she says. In fact, Bellancile has big plans for her new household business—she’s already hired three women from her community to help tend to her livestock and crops, and is looking forward to passing on what she’s learned through Village Enterprise so these women can change their lives and break the cycle of extreme poverty for their families, too.

Pascasie, Pascasie’s grandson, Bellancile, and Alphonsine inside of their retail store, proudly holding their business record book.

Our Commitment to Empowering Women

This is what happens when you empower women—you empower entire communities through them. When women are provided opportunities to launch sustainable businesses, save for the future, and take on leadership positions, they’re more likely to invest back into their children and families, helping to break the generational traps of poverty. “This is why addressing gender equality and investing in women is at the core of Village Enterprise’s mission to end extreme poverty,” says Nelly Munge, Village Enterprise Technical Advisor for Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion. “When women like Bellancile are empowered, everyone benefits—children, families, and entire communities.”

Because women in rural communities across Africa are more vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, conflict, global pandemics, and inflation, they are disproportionately affected by extreme poverty. That’s why Village Enterprise is intentional about equipping women with the best resources and skills to thrive in the face of a changing environment and unexpected challenges. In fact, 82% of Village Enterprise entrepreneurs are women. “Even though our program has proven so impactful for women, we’re always looking at how we can improve. That’s why we are continuing to research the barriers that women face,” explains Nelly. “At the end of our program, we don’t want to see women experience any financial limits.”

For Bellancile, this program has changed the trajectory of her life and the lives of her children. The same is true for her business partners, Pascasie and Alphonsine. “Our lives are changed, all three of us,” says Bellancille. Six months into operating their business and already moving to diversify into new revenue streams—in many ways Bellancile is just getting started. “I can see that my future is bright.”

Rulindo district in northern Rwanda—the home of Bellancile, Pascasie, and Alphonsine.

Partnering for Greater Impact

The role women play in ending extreme poverty is critical, but the complex needs of women and girls requires a tailored, collaborative approach. This is why Village Enterprise is partnering with leading organizations, government entities, and funders to empower as many women as possible. While the core of this approach is our cost-effective, data-driven poverty graduation program, we work with partners to address the unique needs of each community by layering additional components into our curriculum; this can include education on regionally-specific agricultural practices for communities dealing with shifting weather patterns, cash transfers to help with food consumption and medical care for communities affected by chronic rates of acute child malnutrition, menstrual health education designed to eliminate menstrual taboos and stigmas, and more.

To learn more about how we’re partnering to empower women, check out our Five-Year Report.

The post Bellancile’s Story: Women Leading Change appeared first on Village Enterprise.

‘Do you want to slaughter the chicken?’

Harriet and Philomena are both looking at me expectedly as the bird wriggles under Harriet’s armpit. Behind them one-year-old Israel crawls back and forth across the immaculately swept floor of the compound, leaving little wet patches where he sits. Six-year-old Ken shimmies up the mango tree to attach a rope swing, completely ignored by his mother and grandmother as he balances precariously in the branches.

‘No thank you,’ I say, avoiding making eye contact with the soon-to-be dinner. ‘I’ve not done it before, and I think it’s best to leave to you. I can help with cooking though?’

Philomena nods, takes the chicken from her daughter, and disappears in the thatched hut that I believe is the kitchen and storeroom. Harriet frowns critically at my dress. ‘You need to cover up because of the fire,’ she tells me, and fetches a green scarf to wrap around my waist, protecting me from waist to ankles. I do as I’m told although this additional layer is vaguely torturous in the heat. In what seems like less time than it takes me to buy a chicken in Carrefour, Philomena is back with a dead, plucked animal.

‘I’m not actually a very good cook,’ I tell them both as I follow to the thatched hut that houses the charcoal fire. They both turn to stare at me, incredulous. I get the feeling they would be less surprised if I told them I had two heads than if I said I was a woman who didn’t know how to cook.

‘We can teach you!’ Harriet proclaims enthusiastically. Philomena agrees, but very quickly they decide that I am more hindrance than help. ‘Siobhan, take Auntie round the village with Chairman,’ Harriet instructs, shooing me away.

*

I have worked at Village Enterprise for the past six years, but this is the first time that I have spent a full 24 hours in one of the villages we serve. While I am passionate about our impact and team, can cite statistics, and have met many entrepreneurs we’ve trained, I learn very quickly in this visit to Opadoi Village that this is not enough. What I have been seeing is the Big Picture; but I have been missing the Whole Picture.

Let me explain another way. When I was a child I was given a ‘painting by numbers’ kit. This was a picture made up of lots of different small shapes, each one with a number in the middle. On the back there was a key that told me what color corresponded with what number. For example, all 1s were to be painted a spring green, all 2s a dark green, all 3s a deep blue, etc. The idea was that when the painter completed the picture, what had originally looked like a random collection of small shapes revealed a beautiful landscape.

At the start of the week I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what made up Village Enterprise’s beautiful landscape. However, impact, case studies, and drive-by field trips don’t capture the way that expressions flit across Philomena’s face like clouds across the sky on a windy day. They don’t capture the fierceness of Harriet’s hug, or the sweaty small of your back from dancing until the whole village collapses in exhaustion. They don’t capture the fact that although Village Enterprise is an important part of these people’s lives, they are not defined by their business success. It is almost as though a color is missing in the paint-by-numbers picture I had. I could see the Big Picture, but not the Whole Picture. I was missing the color that gives warmth, depth, and vibrancy.

I was missing the yellow.

*

Siobhan is seven years old and delighted to be appointed as one of my tour guides. She narrates life as only young children can; telling me so-and-so is fat, that those boys are definitely going to fall off the motorbike if they continue to drive like that, and all men like playing cards. A potentially unreliable guide on her own, she is joined by John, the Village Chairman. John was elected Chairman four years ago and takes his role extremely seriously. He is obviously well-respected by the village he serves, and seems related by blood or marriage to a good number of the households. As we walk I hear him remind a group of men sitting under a tarpaulin that bar-holes are not going to be open tonight, in honor of the visitor.

‘See! I told you!’ crows Siobhan as she notes the men are playing cards.

‘Yoga,’ I say, greeting the men who smile at me and gesture me to join their game, in spite of the fact I have potentially ruined any fun plans they may have had for later.

‘We need to keep going,’ John tells them, marching me forward. ‘We have a lot to see.’

There are a total of 114 households in the village, with an unpaved road running through the center. In the time I am there I don’t see any cars; most people are either walking or riding bicycles. There is no power (although plenty of houses have small solar lights and some also have solar radios), and jerry cans snake in queues as women gather at the water points. Most of the village is navigated by small, dusty paths that weave between homes and dry grass. ‘Climate change,’ John tells me. ‘It makes our businesses hard.’

The first house we visit belongs to Deborah. She sees us in the distance and starts running towards her compound, carrying a chair for me to sit on. Her home is typical of the rest in the village; a dusty plot of earth surrounded by small, thatched huts–each one a separate room with a separate function. Deborah shakes my hand and smiles shyly as I compliment her on her Village Enterprise t-shirt. She tells me that the Business Savings Group all saved to buy matching t-shirts. I am told to sit on the chair, and Siobhan perches on the tree trunk that serves as a second seat.

‘No Siobhan!’ I tell her, ‘Deborah is the grown up, so she gets to sit down!’ Siobhan rolls her eyes at me and disappears to play with some of the children that have been following us since we left.

‘I used to be the one who begged for food at my neighbors,’ Deborah begins. ‘But now that I have a business, I can feed all my children.’ As she says the last part she visibly grows in stature. I ask her what her business is, and she describes that after Village Enterprise’s training she interviewed her neighbors and found there was a demand for fish.

‘That’s right,’ John confirms. ‘Everyone comes to Deborah’s house now when they want to buy small fish.’

Deborah has seven children, and is so proud she can now feed them and afford medicine. As we walk to the next house I ask John what this means for gender relations and whether it caused any problems. ‘Oh no. Actually, we men were having a lot of pressure to get money for the family and we are happy it is now a team effort!’

The crowd of children following us is growing in number and Siobhan takes my hand proprietarily. Emboldened, another little girl pushes forward from the group to take my other hand, and the rest trip along happily at our heels.

‘This is Janet,’ John says, introducing me to an older woman when we arrive at the next household. ‘She is also a Village Enterprise participant.’

Janet is enthusiastically whooping and waving her arms. She pulls me into one of her huts and my eyes take a moment to adjust to the sudden darkness. One side of the hut is portioned off with a blanket hanging down. She reaches underneath and finds what she is looking for–a plastic basket. Opening this she shows me a mat, some plates, and some mugs. John is poking his head in the doorway. ‘She is showing you what she bought with her SWAP savings!’

‘Wow! They are very beautiful!’

Janet nods in delighted agreement and wants to be photographed with her new belongings.

Siobhan meanwhile has badgered one of Janet’s adult children to shake some mangoes from the tree. ‘Shiv! They’re not ripe!’ the man says in futile protest, even as he starts shaking the tree. Siobhan just shrugs, concentrating on trimming her fingernails with a razor blade she found on the floor. A couple of mangos fall down.

‘I’ve just realized!’ the man says, handing them to her, ‘At dinner last night you said that expecting mothers like unripe mangos… your Mum is having another baby?!’

John smiles at this sideshow and turns his attention back to me and Janet. ‘Village Enterprise has really changed this community,’ he says. Janet adds something as I show her the photos I have taken on my phone. ‘She says she was the one playing the drum when you were dancing,’ he translates. ‘And she will do it again later.’ My big smile is swept aside by an enthusiastic hug before we proceed to the next household.

‘This must be the last one,’ John tells me. ‘Philomena will be waiting for us.’

Siobhan’s hand is now sticky from mango juice, adding to the layer of sunscreen, sweat, and dust I am coated in. ‘We are lucky because you have come to see us, Auntie,’ she confides as we trek along the path, side-by-side.

‘No,’ I correct, ‘I am lucky because I have come to see you.’

Siobhan pauses a moment, squints up at me, and then nods at the veracity of this statement. ‘Yes. You are lucky to come and see us.’

I recognize the owner of the next household from our dancing earlier in the day. Her energy and smile had been unmatched as she danced for joy, not for Instagram.

John says his greeting and then turns to me. ‘This is Alice. Her business is cassava.’

We walk thirty meters behind Alice’s compound and there is cassava drying in the sun, a machine for grinding, and several bags ready to take to market. I ask Alice about her business, and she tells me that this is something that she did before Village Enterprise. I am initially surprised, as we consistently refer to our participants as ‘first-time entrepreneurs,’ but of course. Of course people like Alice aren’t just sitting around waiting for help. Of course they are trying to do something.

‘What’s different now?’

Alice looks puzzled.

‘I mean, compared to before Village Enterprise?’

‘My children are in school and we eat different foods.’

I nod enthusiastically. ‘That’s wonderful! But what made the difference?’

Both Alice and John seem non-plussed by this question. It takes several attempts at asking it in different ways before Alice understands what I am asking. ‘We now make a profit,’ she tells me. ‘And if we are not making a profit, we know we need to change the business.’

‘So the business was not making money before?’

‘No–we didn’t know how to make money.’

‘Or how to know if they were making money,’ John adds. ‘Because they weren’t thinking of profit or record-keeping.’

Alice eyes up the bags of cassava. ‘But even now lots of people are doing cassava. We are thinking that we might change to millet to make more profit. And I have planted greens in my garden for my own household business.’

As we contemplate this decision an elderly gentleman approaches on his bicycle.

‘Ah, this is also John!’ John says. ‘John is one of our savings group treasurers and a village elder, and is joining us for dinner.’

John dismounts and greets us. We say goodbye to Alice, and John pushes his bike behind me. Siobhan has disappeared–hopefully to give some mangoes to her mother before she eats them all herself, although I have my doubts.

‘John has a very good business,’ John the Chairman tells me.

John the Treasurer nods. ‘I sell hides. Skins of animals.’

It’s hard work, he tells me, and no one else wants to clean the skins so everyone knows that he is the one to do it. He has been doing the business for years, but it is only since Village Enterprise that he has managed to make a profit. Before he didn’t know how to run a business–only how to clean hides. He is now doing very well.

‘So well,’ John the Chairman adds as we arrive back at Philomena’s, ‘That he managed to pay for his neighbor to take her son to hospital when he had a motorbike accident yesterday.’ John the Treasurer acknowledges this with only the slightest flicker of his mouth as he props up his bicycle.

Village Enterprise often talks about Ubuntu being our north-star value, and not for the first time I see how brightly this star shines in Opadoi Village. Obviously brighter than I am currently shining, as Harriet takes one look at me and instructs me to bathe before dinner. By the time I return from my bucket shower it is getting dark.

‘Switch off the light,’ Chairman John tells me. ‘We do it natural.’

I obey and the night sky above stretches out with an impossible number of stars. We eat in the moonlight; tearing the chicken with our hands.

‘The whole village says they are sleeping with Auntie Mzungu tonight,’ Harriet says with a laugh. She and Philomena are eating on a mat on the ground with the children, while the men and I sit on chairs in front of a low table. ‘But it is really only me, Ken, and Israel.’

I suspect the fact we shared a room for a night will be a story that Harriet tells for many years to come. And I know that it will be a story that I tell for many years to come.

For today is the day that Opadoi Village helped me to find the missing yellow.

The post The Missing Yellow 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.

Great progress has been made in alleviating extreme poverty. According to the World Bank, the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped significantly from 1.9 billion people in 1990 to 689 million in 2017. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic, that progress has stalled for the first time in 25 years.

What does the evidence point to as possible solutions to this problem? The evidence suggests that entrepreneurship and innovation play important roles in driving poverty alleviation. Identifying and scaling up the most cost-effective, evidence-based solutions have never been more urgent as the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and sociopolitical conflict could push hundreds of millions of people into extreme poverty. Microcredit, cash transfers, and poverty graduation programs are three different approaches to providing people living in extreme poverty with a pathway out.

In the 2000s, these approaches underwent rigorous evaluations using randomized controlled trials (RCT) to generate evidence about the effectiveness of each approach. However, it wasn’t until 2019 that Michael Kremer, Abhijit Banerjee, and Esther Duflo were recognized as Nobel Laureates in Economics for recommending that we solve the problem of extreme poverty by using evidence to drive policy decisions and the allocation of funding.

In 2006, Muhammed Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the Grameen Bank for their approach to eradicating poverty through microlending. However, the results of the RCTs demonstrated a less than impressive impact that microcredit has in increasing the income of those living in poverty: while microcredit did lead to some increase in small business ownership and business activity, it did not lead to increased income or profits, investments in children’s schooling, or substantial gains in women’s empowerment. Without increases in overall income, the loans did not lift people out of poverty for the most part.

In more recent years, there has been more interest in scaling up cash transfers to people living in extreme poverty. Cash transfers are efficient to distribute using mobile technology and provide people living in poverty with the flexibility and agency to decide how to allocate the funds. But the evidence on the effectiveness of cash transfers is mixed, and most of the evidence on cash transfers focuses on shorter-term results. While cash transfers can be impactful, they fail to address all the challenges households face beyond just capital constraints. We believe the variance in households that are ready to productively use cash transfers and variances in the amount, duration, recipient, conditions of cash transfers are the key drivers of the mixed effectiveness seen in the evidence base.

This leaves us to discuss the effectiveness of poverty graduation programs like the one Village Enterprise uses. Community-based and locally-led, the Village Enterprise poverty graduation program equips Africans living in extreme poverty with a cash transfer, training, and year-long mentoring by a local business mentor to start and successfully run group-based income-generating businesses and savings groups. Digital technology and a group-based approach make this more scalable and cost-effective. The advantage of poverty graduation programs is that they address multiple poverty traps: cash transfers address the lack of money; new businesses address the lack of economic opportunities; training addresses the lack of skills and knowledge; mentoring addresses the lack of confidence, know-how, and empowerment; savings groups address the lack of access to financial institutions; and more recently, digital tools tackle the lack of access to—and knowledge of how to use—technology.

One of the most important things we have done as an organization is to invest in research. When we wrote our strategic plan back in 2010, we included the priority to do an independent randomized controlled trial to develop the evidence for our new model. RCTs are now considered the gold standard for evaluating programs but this was quite a novel approach for a nonprofit with a small budget. While similar to the BRAC model that was evaluated in six countries under the CGAP, Ford Foundation research, Village Enterprise’s model had some important differences: a cash transfer rather than an asset transfer, the cash transfer given to a group of three individuals who self-select to run a group business, and training and mentoring at the group level rather than the household level and a one-year duration rather than a two to three year. These differences made our model significantly less expensive than the other graduation programs evaluated.

The independent randomized controlled trial results showed the Village Enterprise program generated one of the highest returns in overall consumption and household expenditure per dollar invested. Six of the seven randomized controlled trials of the poverty graduation approach, including Village Enterprise’s, generated positive results across multiple poverty indicators and important subjective well-being indicators like mental health, women’s empowerment, agency, and standing in the community. The evidence also demonstrated increases in income, consumption, savings, assets, food security, and nutrition. These results validated our theory of change, which posits that the ultra-poor households we serve face multiple barriers to leaving extreme poverty, and so cash or asset transfers must be complemented with other contextually relevant interventions such as financial and business training, mentoring and coaching, savings groups and so forth to help them productively invest the capital and launch their journeys out of poverty. As this evidence has emerged, funders, policymakers, and governments have begun to recognize and prioritize the poverty graduation approach.

If you are interested in learning more, please view Dianne’s video talk and/or podcast interview (see below), where she explored the evidence behind these different approaches, the latest innovations that could increase their impact, and the most promising approaches to scaling up the most effective solutions.

The post Harvard Center for International Development Speaker Series: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Evidence to Drive Poverty Alleviation appeared first on Village Enterprise.

In order to address these inequities in conjunction with general program implementation, Village Enterprise participants are encouraged to bring their partners or spouses to the nine-module business training. Encouraging men to support their partners’ businesses improves household power dynamics while equalizing economic and care responsibilities in the family setting. 

To understand the impact our program can have when male spouses are involved, we interviewed Michael Erimu. Michael is not a Village Enterprise entrepreneur. He is, however, married to Grace Atim, a Village Enterprise retail clothing entrepreneur. The couple has seven children, and one of them is battling a life-threatening disease that weighs heavily on the family’s financial and emotional well-being. 

Michael is a shining example of how the intentional presence of a father and spouse can change lives. And with that, we wish all fathers globally a very happy fathers day! 

Michael tells his story below: 

Before my wife, Grace, joined Village Enterprise, I worked as a secondary school teacher. My job allowed me to support my family financially but required that I spend most of my time away from home. So while Grace cared for our children and watched over our home, I sent everything I had back to support them. However, everything changed when two of our children were diagnosed with life-threatening diseases. Although there are treatments available to manage the symptoms, they are either temporary, expensive, or both.

Caring for a loved one suffering from a chronic disease can take its toll on a family, and after a while, Grace could no longer care for our children alone. Most employers are empathetic, but because helping her meant that I often missed work, I eventually quit the teaching profession. Although we now had the time to care for our children, we were struggling to provide basic necessities for them in addition to the medical treatments required for our son. Furthermore, without stable jobs, we did not have access to growth capital, nor did we have a safe place to save money and borrow from in times of medical emergencies. Things were hard for my family for a long time, but in 2020, with Grace pregnant again, a Village Enterprise business mentor visited my wife and me, and everything changed.

The business mentor told us about the Village Enterprise poverty graduation program, which supports three entrepreneurs with different but complementary skills to form one business. He thought that Grace would be a perfect candidate for the program and that Village Enterprise would provide the seed capital to start her business after she completed training sessions. The business mentor assured us that consistent mentorship is part of the program. He also shared that the entrepreneurs would form business savings groups consisting of 30 entrepreneurs (10 business groups) per group. 

I wanted to learn how best to support my wife throughout this program, so I decided to attend all nine training modules with her. Through the training sessions, Grace learned how to turn her skill as a retail clothing hawker into a structured and profitable business.

After business training concluded in March, Grace started her new business – a retail thrift clothing store. She needed to transport heavy sacks of clothes from the wholesalers’ location to our compound, where she set up the selling space. She was heavily pregnant, so I took charge of lifting heavy sacks. We got into a daily routine, and before Grace would leave for the market, we would sit together as a family to plan her movements. We would decide how much to spend and how to split our parenting roles. I help her keep business records and sometimes make sales for her, and we have grown much closer. I represent her whenever she cannot attend business savings group meetings—just as her business mentor advised—and together, we decide how much to set aside for savings each week. 

Before Grace joined the Village Enterprise program, we were gambling and living month to month, hoping to generate enough money to support our children. Still, today, we think in terms of profits, expenditure, and future investment. So we save diligently and set money aside for emergency funds. 

I watched with pride as my wife bought two pigs, three goats, new plates, and new mattresses with profits from her business. These changes have been gradual yet incredibly fulfilling for our home life. I am grateful that I no longer have to travel far to support our children financially and can be fully present in their lives. Grace’s Village Enterprise business, which started as profit generation for her and her two friends, has evolved into a family business. My wife is the most hardworking woman I know, and I am so happy to support her.

The post A Ugandan Father Intentionally Breaking the Mold appeared first on Village Enterprise.

Fast forward two years. Our team is working directly with the County Government of West Pokot to create a program that can be replicated throughout the region. The goal is to create opportunities so more people like Penina can experience positive life changes through business training and access to resources. This new venture is called The Economic Justice Program and is an Open Society Foundation (OSF)-funded project providing technical assistance to the County Government of West Pokot, Kenya. Additionally, this project is in partnership with Wasafiri Consulting, a think tank that helps leaders and their organizations—including governments—tackle some of humanity’s most complex problems. Through this project, we seek to empower business savings groups by registering existing groups into producer organizations, training the producer organizations, and then linking them to wholesale markets.

The county government has embraced Village Enterprise’s economic inclusion program and demonstrated its commitment through the cabinet to ensure that all programming within the county is adjusted to fit the element of economic inclusion. The commitment is visible through the involvement of the Governor, Professor John Lonyangapuo. The Governor is willing to partner with Village Enterprise to ensure that economic and social inclusion is in line with his vision to promote equity, ensure quality education, and strengthen the economy in the county. The governor appreciates the economic inclusion program and pledges to work closely and in partnership with Village Enterprise throughout the project to deliver the agreed-upon plan.

The Economic Justice Program is the first of its kind, a pilot project that will significantly assist the West Pokot County Government. This project has helped increase the capacity of government officials within their policy formulation processes and enabled them to address current gaps at the county level. The policy that will evolve out of the Economic Justice Project will be a tool for resource mobilization, fund utilization, and program implementation. Future policies will be formulated with best practices in mind while addressing illegalities that were present before and ensuring the presence of supporting systems.

The County Executive Committee Member of Finance, the Honorable Augustine Lotodo Monges, tells us that he is excited about the project and notes that the economic inclusion program would positively change how resources are shared and distributed at the county level. He affirms that “this is due to the noble idea of formulating a policy that will guide the distribution of resources in West Pokot County. Our target participants will be the poorest of the poor, as opposed to how it has been before, and this will go a long way in ensuring social and economic inclusion, hence improving the economy of our county.” He adds that the capacity of county executive committee members in the planning and budgeting processes, as well as the formulation and implementation of policies at the county level, will be improved after the various training sessions the cabinet received because of the Economic Justice Project.

Mrs. Emily Chepoghisio, the County Executive Committee Member for Youth Sports, Tourism and Gender, acknowledges that the Village Enterprise approach would place emphasis on targeting young people, women, and economically vulnerable groups. She notes that adjusting the programs at the county level will positively impact the community. 

County Executive Committee Member for Education and Technical Training, Mrs. Ruth Kisabit, adds that “the addition of training focused on economic inclusion will be eye-opening for those who benefit from resources at the county level. They will be well-equipped with sufficient knowledge to uplift their lives.” 

An entrepreneur, who is also a participant of the ongoing Village Enterprise’s Economic Justice Program in West Pokot County, Rose Chelimo, has this to say about the approach:

“Village Enterprise’s poverty Graduation approach has impacted my life and that of my family. My group started with 50 chickens in 2019, and we now have 500 chickens within this short period. With the help of Village Enterprise, my group with three other groups will be registered as a producer organization, which means another milestone in economic inclusion.”

Ms. Chelimo is excited that they will now be eligible for government assistance provided to co-operatives including loans at lower rates of interest and relief in taxation. “We can now engage in major investments going forward,” she explains with a broad smile on her face.

With the support of Village Enterprise’s Economic Justice Program, Rose and other first-time entrepreneurs will be linked directly to value chains without interference from intermediaries, a nuisance by which they were previously constrained.

The Economic Justice Program intends to have buy-in from the County Government of West Pokot in order to incorporate the economic inclusion program in its future interventions, as a way of sustaining efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Nancy Chumo, the Country Director of  Village Enterprise Kenya, noted that this new program contributes to our organization’s strategy of scaling through governments. She tells us that, “in such an arrangement, it is impressive to see the West Pokot County Government adopt an economic inclusion program in service delivery, resource allocation, and governance.” This is an exciting time for the Village Enterprise Scaling Team as we begin drafting the Poverty Graduation Policy, a product of our strong technical assistance. This is also an exciting time for many of our entrepreneurs as the market linkage connection allows enterprises and savings groups the ability to receive increased returns from their investments due to better prices from more established markets.

The post Scaling the Village Enterprise Economic Inclusion Project: Partnership with Local Government appeared first on Village Enterprise.

Meanwhile, sitting in Nairobi, 2,500km away from Lomako, Village Enterprise’s scaling team is preparing to work alongside AWF to reach people just like Limbute. With funding provided by the Arcus Foundation, our team begins strategizing. The goal of this unique partnership is to determine whether Village Enterprise’s poverty Graduation Model can operate in such a different and challenging context. If the program can thrive, it will showcase whether this joint venture will positively impact the perception of the park and AWF, thereby reducing illegal hunting. The project is ambitious, but Village Enterprise is a pioneer in the poverty alleviation field, and innovation is our greatest strength.

Over the course of two years, our scaling team adapted our materials to the Lomako context and developed new training materials. The first year of this partnership was spent establishing Village Enterprise’s poverty Graduation Model alongside the AWF team. This included recruitment and training of field staff to set up the monitoring and evaluating systems. Upon their return to East Africa, the Village Enterprise team members continue to provide remote technical support to the AWF team and plan follow-up monitoring visits. 

For Anthony Omogin, our lead field associate, traveling to Lomako in 2018 marked his first time outside of East Africa. He was struck by the extreme poverty in the DRC; he saw large families sharing tiny palm leaf houses and children with distended bellies. Anthony spent hours on the back of a motorbike weaving down forest paths and over makeshift bridges to get to the next village. However, as the project continued, his impression of extreme poverty faded as he witnessed the incredible resilience and positive attitude of the people. Anthony recalls his interactions with Boyella Heretay, an orphan who could not afford to go to school and was learning to hunt instead. Like Limbute, Boyella spent months in the forest and was imprisoned by the park authorities when he was caught hunting illegally. He jumped at the chance to set up an alternative business enterprise so that he would no longer have to hunt illegally to make a living. Charly from AWF lived in Lomako years ago and is familiar with AWF’s recent work in the park.  He told Village Enterprise, “I am amazed to see the difference the program has made to the individuals that participated.  Lomako is a very difficult, complex context, and so the fact that the entrepreneurs have succeeded is even more impressive.” Adam from Arcus visited the project in March 2020. He wrote, “We have supported Village Enterprise to deliver their program in Western Uganda over the past several years, but this is the first time we supported them to provide technical assistance to another organization and the first time they worked in the DRC.  When I was in the field, I was struck by how the project has not only lifted local people out of poverty but also significantly improved relationships between these communities and the state partners responsible for managing biodiversity.”

After a few months of receiving business training and a small grant, Limbute opened a little pharmacy. With the income from this small business, he now not only can afford to send his children to school, but he is also paying for himself to go back to school. Anthony reports, ‘He said that during school break, the children would run up to him and say, “Hey, Daddy, will you give us some small money so we can buy a snack?” And he could give them something small. He says that he’s not ashamed of going back to school and studying very hard – he wants to become a doctor.

Limbute no longer hunts in the forest. He is now a respected business owner with a joint pharmacy and a family enterprise he established with his wife after earning enough income through his pharmacy. The family business is focused on buying household commodities (e.g., salt, sardines, sugar) from far-flung markets and selling these items in his village. Limbute’s life has changed entirely, and youth in his community are now coming to him seeking business advice!  

Inspired by Limbute’s success, Village Enterprise’s scaling team continues to seek opportunities to make strides in our mission to end extreme poverty. Before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, our team was conducting scoping trips to other regions in the DRC and Congo-Brazzaville to see whether our poverty Graduation model could be adapted to support the efforts of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Additionally, we have just signed a contract to support World Vision to implement an adapted version of our poverty Graduation program in Cyclone Idai impacted areas of Mozambique.  We are also working with other international humanitarian organizations to adapt our program to work with refugees. 

All of this requires working with partners who are equally passionate about ending extreme poverty. If you share our passion, please get in touch, and, together, we can find a way to raise the human race out of poverty.

The post Decreasing Illegal Poaching with Enterprise Solutions appeared first on Village Enterprise.